Posts by Chris Jenkins

Big Ticket Items: How ONS is transforming its measures of inflation 

Categories: ONS
Picture of row of terraced houses

Today marks an important step in the ONS’s transformation journey, with the launch of new private housing rents statistics. Utilising far more data points than before, these new measures allow us to measure both the level and rate of change in rental prices right down to local authority areas. Chris Jenkins tells us about these new figures as well as our new data source for measuring the prices of second-hand cars.   

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On the market – how the ONS measures property prices

Categories: ONS
Monopoly type house pieces sat on top of pound coins

House prices are attracting a lot of attention at the moment with speculation around whether we may see a housing market crash amidst a sluggish economy. Here at the ONS, we have also seen some debate about how average house prices, such as those published in our UK House Price Index (HPI) are calculated as well as some queries around the timeliness of our HPI data. Chris Jenkins explains the detailed calculations that take place in order that we can produce meaningful and comparable measures of change across the UK.  

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Keeping it consistent – how we quality adjust CPI

Categories: Business, Data, Economy, Office for National Statistics, ONS
Innovation Picture

Our consumer inflation statistics are closely watched, not only because they tell us how price rises are affecting people, but also because they are a crucial piece of information, used by the Bank of England when setting Interest rates. Chris Jenkins talks about the complex adjustments we make to ensure the index shows only real, underlying changes in prices.  

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Inflation: How it’s reported and its impact on prices

Categories: Business, Data, Economy, Office for National Statistics, ONS
A shopping basket surrounded by stacks of coins

Inflation is big news at the moment given the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine conflict and the subsequent rise in the cost of living. When inflation is high, we all feel the impact as this reduces the amount of goods and services we can afford to purchase. As our latest numbers show a fall in the inflation rate, Chris Jenkins explains why it is important to understand this doesn’t necessarily mean a fall in prices. 

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Rising to the challenge: How the ONS is developing inflation measures for the nations and regions

Categories: Data, Economy, Office for National Statistics, ONS

There is currently a lot of interest in how much prices are rising. Today we’re publishing inflation numbers for Northern Ireland. Here Chris Jenkins looks at our work to develop these figures with the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland as well as explaining why it’s not as easy to produce inflation data for the nations and regions as you might think.  

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