Economy

Nice one CHAPS: how Bank of England card data are telling us more about consumer spending

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Economy, ONS

The pandemic has had such an impact on our everyday lives – movement restrictions, store closures, panic buying and people occupying more time at home have all influenced our spending patterns and consumer behaviour. David Matthewson explains how, for the first time, the ONS will publish credit and debit card transaction data from the Bank of England that will give us more detailed information on how we have been spending our money over the last twelve months.  

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How the COVID-19 Pandemic has accelerated the shift to online spending

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Economy
Image shows someone's hands holding a credit card over a laptop keyboard, like they are shopping online

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the retail sector with many stores forced to close at the height of lockdown. During that time consumers switched their spending to online. As Rhys Dalgleish explains, since many shops have now reopened, the shift back to in store purchasing has begun but a far higher proportion remains online than before the crisis.

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Measuring the UK housing market?

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Economy, ONS
Image of a house on a scales. There is a green up arrow on the left and a down arrow in red on the right of it

House prices and the state of the property market are an abiding national obsession. How much is my place worth, are prices rising around here and can I afford to buy yet? The coronavirus pandemic has made the task of collecting data about the housing and rental markets more challenging, but the ONS and others have  continued to produce figures. Here Chris Jenkins looks what they say about the state of the property market in pandemic so far.

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Public services: measuring the part they play in the economy through the pandemic

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Economy

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has clearly hit the economy of all countries very hard, with big falls in GDP across the world. The UK has seen the output of its public services, such as health and education, hit harder than many other countries. Here Rob Kent Smith explains how we measure the contribution of these important services and why we’ve seen such big declines.  

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