National Statistical

In recent years the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been working hard to transform and improve the way it tracks the movement of consumer prices. At the forefront of this work is our development of dynamic consumer price statistics using digital data sources. Mike Hardie looks at how this groundbreaking work is improving our understanding of inflation in the UK economy.  

It is an exciting time in the world of inflation statistics, with several important developments due to be implemented in the coming months. Mike Hardie explains what’s changing and what it will tell us about changing prices. 

For the first time in decades inflation is a major issue again. Supply chain issues linked to the pandemic, rising fuel costs and shortages linked to the war in Ukraine have all combined to push the growth in prices to levels not seen since the early nineties. In this post Mike Hardie explains how the ONS is updating the production of UK inflation statistics to give the most detailed picture yet of how prices are changing and who they’re affecting.  

The recent rise in UK inflation has focused much attention on this important metric. But the headline inflation rate is, of course, only an average figure and doesn’t necessarily reflect the price changes experienced by different people. In this post Mike Hardie explains the challenges of measuring everyone’s cost of living – and how some important new enhancements will provide a clearer picture in future.