Have we overlooked inflation?

itsnever2lateisit?

We are told that RPI is less than 1% etc, and I don't dispute the stats. However, for those whose income is barely more than expenditure, perhaps that doesn't apply.

Road fuel costs rose last year by nearly 50%
Heating/Lighting also up, and if you use oil for heating it almost doubled
Food prices, don't get me going:mad:

In order to continue to pay for these (more essential) items means that discetionary spending has to be cut back, example Cinema, restaurants, and days out.

So our individual 'basket' of what we buy each week has changed to cope with this inflation

Interesting, thought provoking article here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7912958.stm

beingjdc

Inflation is quite a lot higher if you factor out interest rate cuts, falling rents, and the VAT cut - it's just over 4%.

However road fuel costs aren't up 50% - a year ago petrol was about 78p on average, now it's about 90p, so up more like 15%. Heating and lighting are up a lot, but some of that was in January last year, so has fallen out of the annual inflation figures and now are back down a little bit.

Graham_Devon

beingjdc wrote: »

Inflation is quite a lot higher if you factor out interest rate cuts, falling rents, and the VAT cut - it's just over 4%.

However road fuel costs aren't up 50% - a year ago petrol was about 78p on average, now it's about 90p, so up more like 15%. Heating and lighting are up a lot, but some of that was in January last year, so has fallen out of the annual inflation figures and now are back down a little bit.

Dunno where you live, but petrol cheapest round here is 97p. And went to around £1.23p.

I think it was officially a 41% rise or something they came up with when it was at peak.

Noticed the extra 40% on top of my electric bill this quarter too!!

I also notice Gordon is VERY quiet about the pressure he was going to put on domestic energy companies in January to cut prices. Seems they are not reducing prices as promised.

beingjdc

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Dunno where you live, but petrol cheapest round here is 97p. And went to around £1.23p.

South-East London, the one round the corner from me is 92.9p, and not usually the cheapest, but last month was a bit less - in January when they were measuring for inflation they found an average of 87.9p.

I think it was officially a 41% rise or something they came up with when it was at peak.

Yes, maybe, but it isn't at its peak any more, so you can't expect the inflation figures now to reflect how much it went up six months ago, if it's gone back down since. As you say, where you live it's now down over 20% from its peak. If it stays there until a year after the peak, you have to plug -20% into the inflation data.

Noticed the extra 40% on top of my electric bill this quarter too!!

So have we, but that's not because it went up this quarter, it's because they didn't change our fixed direct debit when it did go up, so we were running up a debt (which I'm happy to do since it's interest free, as long as I know about it). Now they want us to catch up.

A._Badger

I simply do not believe the government's inflation figures. They vary the ingredients to get the figures they want and rely on their tame media outlets to propagate them (the BBC in particular).

One thing that is very revealing about MSE is reading people's practical experience of price inflation - notably supermarket food prices. There are people posting here who carry around in their heads the price of goods they regularly buy and they notice the few pence here and there by which they are increased.

They are better measures of reality, I suspect, than an army of overpaid bureaucrats, politicians and tame journalists.

b0rker

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Dunno where you live, but petrol cheapest round here is 97p. And went to around £1.23p.

I live in Inverness and petrol is currently 90p (89.9p) a litre at my local Tescos.

I do roughly 1000 miles a week so I keep an close eye on petrol prices.

You are being ripped off mate.

mewbie_2

Inflation is the elephant in the room. We don't notice it growing, but every now and then a visitor will say "that elephants grown since I last came round".

CLAPTON

A._Badger wrote: »

I simply do not believe the government's inflation figures. They vary the ingredients to get the figures they want and rely on their tame media outlets to propagate them (the BBC in particular).

One thing that is very revealing about MSE is reading people's practical experience of price inflation - notably supermarket food prices. There are people posting here who carry around in their heads the price of goods they regularly buy and they notice the few pence here and there by which they are increased.

They are better measures of reality, I suspect, than an army of overpaid bureaucrats, politicians and tame journalists.

A few months ago, that well known newspaper the Daily Telegraph developed their own meaure of inflation called 'the real cost of living index'.

Amazingly it showed that the government measures massively under estimated inflation for 'real' 'ordinary people.

It's published each week in the Saturday Telegraph.... today it shows that for real people the inflation rate is negative (-4% in fact).

so there you go..

A._Badger

CLAPTON wrote: »

A few months ago, that well known newspaper the Daily Telegraph developed their own meaure of inflation called 'the real cost of living index'.

<snipped>

Take out mortgages and what has gone down in price that most people have to fund regularly? Food? Petrol? Council tax? Umm... newspapers like the Daily Telegraph?

Arcaine

I do not believe price inflation is growing at the moment. Petrol has gone down from £1.20 to 89p, my gas and electricity bills have just been reduced and their are sales everywhere and bargains to be had. Given people are taking wage cuts in many industies, cutting back on the high street and their food bills, and companys are cutting back on unecessary marketing and advertising. I do not see inflationary risks in the economy for a long time yet. In fact even with the potential monetary printing that is about to happen I do not see that even coming close to matching the massive destruction in credit that is happening at the moment.

CLAPTON

A._Badger wrote: »

CLAPTON wrote: »

A few months ago, that well known newspaper the Daily Telegraph developed their own meaure of inflation called 'the real cost of living index'.

<snipped>

Take out mortgages and what has gone down in price that most people have to fund regularly? Food? Petrol? Council tax? Umm... newspapers like the Daily Telegraph?

Obviously 'real' inflation rates are specific to each of us individually.
The example of the telegraph real inflation rate was to prove a point and to show the government's stats is a bad light at the time it was started.. Now shows a diffferent story....

As it will always be so.