CPI has gone down - or has it?

whowants2brich

Apologies if someone has covered this elsewhere, but I'm so crazed at the latest reports that as CPI has apparently gone down to 1.8%, that the BoE should reduce interest rates in order to encourage spending and thus give a boost to the economy. From what so many people have been saying, CPI is more like 5%+ based on their weeekly shopping.

I'd be curious to see if we on MSE can create our own typical basket of goods, and if a group of MSEers could go to their own shops and calculate the prices on a monthly basis - thus effectively creating our own CPI.

20 litres of basic unleaded petrol from your closest petrol station to home
1 loaf of hovis half and half bread
500g of mince beef
4 pints of milk
1kg of branded plain flour (not supermarket own)
etc etc etc

I think that if the posters list the items that they feel should be in the list, as well as a price total, we could soon create a list of "recommended products" for our CPI research - so that everyone can use a standard list (to be created shortly). We could then create our standard basket so that everyone researches their own prices for the same 20 products. The main thing here is to follow through with the prices in a few weeks, or at least monthly, to gain a more accurate picture of the price rises...

Pls let me know if this could be a fun exercise, one which you'd be interested to take part in - and remember, you don't have to buy things, just note down the price as you go round the shop and post the results on here when you're done.

Thanks,
Richard

dunstonh

CPI has gone down. FACT. No opinion or otherwise.

However whether your own personal inflation rate has is a different matter.RPI is a better guide and you can get your own personal inflation rate calculated online if you wish. I cannot recall the link and I am off out now so hopefully someone who knows it will post it.