Balloon-inflation
You try and find a nice image for inflation

Inflation is at its lowest in a year

Well blow me up like a balloon

Yesterday we had wage stats, today it's inflation stats. And the big news is inflation is at 2.5 per cent, the lowest in a year.

What it means: is a calculation of how fast prices are rising. According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the rate is down from 2.7 per cent last month to 2.5 this month. Specifically women's clothing and shoes, and alcohol, aren't going up in price as fast as they were previously – both of those things are contributing to the drop in the inflation rate.

This is good news for our pockets: yesterday we found out that the average wage across the UK had risen 2.8 per cent, and when the inflation rate is lower than the rate wages are rising, that's nice for us because we can buy more for our money – what's called a boost to 'real wages'.

There are a lot of theories about why the inflation rate was so high in the first place – the main being that when the value of the pound fell after the Brexit vote (you can read more about that here if you're interested) it became more expensive for shops, manufacturers, etc to buy stuff from abroad and sell it in the UK, so they passed that burden onto you and me (the 'consumer') by increasing prices. So a fall in 'inflation' means the 'Brexit effect' could finally be waning. Then again, it's only actually been a month of lower rates, so who really knows

Read the full story (BBC News)

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Reader Comments

  • WhereAreTheVikings

    What a terrible, terrible shame. Western Civilization nurtured capitalism, and now capitalism is destroying it. And these young people seem to welcome the invasion of their homeland. The media and schools have been very efficient in wiping out all traces of blood and soil.

    • prollawalllynotahumanoid

      Capitalism isn’t the problem. It’s corrupt politicians taking bribes and kickbacks from Globalists and the Chinese.

      • WhereAreTheVikings

        Maybe I should have said crony capitalism. Although Italians importing Chinese to make “Italian leather” shoes is not crony capitalism. It is capitalism, pure and simple.

        • prollawalllynotahumanoid

          That would be crony capitalism and globalism combined. They aren’t concerned with the affect their policies have upon their citizens, the health and welfare of their society and culture or their economy. What it isn’t is fair-free trade to further national interests.

          • WhereAreTheVikings

            I’ve always seen them as one and the same, but perhaps they need to be named individually, just to bring home the point.

      • WhereAreTheVikings

        But now that travel is so easy and borders are virtually down through H1bs and the like, theoretically you can’t blame capitalists for the pursuit of cheaper labor, although I do heartily blame them not being more patriotic than that. Perhaps the emerging nationalism will force them to voluntarily do what they should have morally been doing all along, and that is employing business practices that preserve their countries and nationalities. The government should be doing everything it can to encourage that, to the extent that small government should do anything but guard the borders and strictly, drastically, limit immigration.

      • Henry Lam

        It is China with its corrupted mindset affecting the world.

        • prollawalllynotahumanoid

          No it is not. Capitalism is the fairest and least corrupt system of all.

          Socialism and communism is based on authoritarianism, coercion and police intimidation. It has and always will be rife with criminality, bribes and kickbacks.

          Corruption can be anywhere but it is the very basis of socialism and communism.

    • Henry Lam

      The government is too weak. They do not understand the mindset of communists and how they educate their people. Those communist people are only loyal to their country and could be dangerous. The immigration law should only accept those who accepted multiculturalism and taught from a democratic education system. This virus events clearly has shown how stupid to take China as a friend.

      • WhereAreTheVikings

        The government is not too weak. Just weak-minded about some things.

  • Gabi Rodrigues

    For how many days can a country maximum close their borders to foreigners maximum? Like now, with the virus, everyone is using 30 days. Can it be more?