Sign southern firm beginning to outperform, coping with a measure of inflation (7)
I believe the answer is:
scorpio
'sign' is the definition.
(sign of the zodiac)
'southern firm beginning to outperform coping with a measure of inflation' is the wordplay.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'firm' becomes 'co' (a firm is a company).
'beginning' says to put letters next to each other.
'to outperform coping with' becomes 'o' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'a measure of inflation' becomes 'RPI' (retail price index).
'o' after 'rpi' is 'rpio'.
's'+'co'+'rpio'='SCORPIO'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scorpio that I've seen before include "Person born between 23 October and 22 November?" , "Star sign" , "Zodiac sign like stinging creature" , "Sign of autumn" , "Zodiac sign like mini-lobster" .)