TelBoy

Year on Year inflation now at 5.2%

Gas bills and clothing in particular are pushing ever higher.

At this sort of level, personal wealth is going to erode at a noticeable rate. London property prices are rising at almost record rates, yet for the average man on the street this has to be putting a big strain on finances.

Anybody really feeling the pinch yet?

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Guaranteed RPI+ pay rises every year help. I'm keen to know the November figure as that's what it's based on.

what would scooby do

Stagflation next...

TelBoy

If we're lucky, WWSD. I find it hard to see how we'll avoid recession.


Cookstar, what industry is that? And for how long is that deal guaranteed? Is it union-brokered?

mamoon2

Any sensible man would have put liquid cash into something like property. Savings are just not worth having at the minute

dpb

Is it foreign nationals pushing up Landan prices ??

I just cant imagine what we can do about energy prices -were over a barrel having to import ?

mamoon2

We could start burning the Welsh for fuel? Just an idea

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Railway industry, and yes heavily brokered by unions.

Maybe "guaranteed" isn't strictly true, but it's been that way for as long as I can remember, and can't see it changing.

TelBoy

Yep, Russian money and new Greek money - better to buy a London property than pay taxes to the pesky Greek government now they've been forced to get their house in order (or at least be seen to be trying).

what would scooby do

Word on the street is we are due a missive property price crash (London excepted) as the level of unemployed hits critical mass and repossessions ramp up)

Leslie

Price rises are certainly noticeable when shopping now. Some of the price rises are pretty surprising.

I suppose it is all we can expect after the overborrowing in the past and the large amount of money which is being printed at the moment and beforehand.

Les

mamoon2

My properties can survive on the local housing allowance rate. This is how i've based my Buy to lets. Anything over the local housing allowance i count as a bonus. Even if unemployment rises, people still need homes.

As long as you are not in it for short term capital gain its a fairly safe bet.

Oh and i've just bought 2 repossessions with juicy discounts

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

I really can't see how anyone thought it wouldn't be over 5% given the energy firms have increased prices by 18% in some cases. It will drop after the end of the year as things like the VAT rise drop out, but will probably be too late by then.

The bad news for the chancellor is that this September figure is the figure that pension increases etc. are based on so that's a other nail in the coffin for his deficit/debt reduction plans.

This government are almost as biig a laugh as the last lot.

Two things made me chuckle this week.

A government report into obesity that took months to prepare (and probably cost lots of taxpayers' money) came up with the conclusion that to avoid obesity people should eat less That was bad enough, but then they announced it like it was some revelation LOL!

Secondly the energy summit at the weekend concluded people should shop around for the best deal. Brilliant idea!!! Thank God for the government.... I would never have thought to do tha!

Fcukwits!

TelBoy

Shopping around for the best deal in a cartel is a contradiction in terms. Cameron ought to have been taken to task for letting the energy companies bend him over like that. To me, Ofgem is the most limp-wristed "watchdog" out there. How do they justify their sorry existence?

EddScott

Can Ofgem cap the suppliers charge?

Does any other industry have what it charges its customers capped?

Not quite sure how the government are supposed to act in this case?

Ofgem have asked demanded clearly pricing. If they also demand that switching be made easier and contracts are reduced to say 6 months. This would be expected to reduce prices with increased competition.

Although they could all be in it together and price fixing. In this case the government should really grow some *****.

As for inflation. It will be interesting to see by how much VAT reduce the %. Hopfully by the end of 2012 it will calm to around 3%. 2% is just never going to happen.

pslewis

The 5.2% rate is the highest CPI measure since September 2008, and it has never been higher since the CPI measure was introduced in 1997.

That's right folks ..... inflation, the thing the Tories cannot control is now as high as it was in 1997 when the Tories got booted out and Labour had to hammer it right back down again!!

Thanks Tories - you useless articles!!

GlesgaKiss

When I saw the title of the other thread I didn't realise it was CPI at 5.2. That's a shocking figure. Aren't these all reverse engineered to show the most cuddly picture possibly anyway? I'd be more inclined to go with RPI as a benchmark.

I'm just lucky that I can save at the moment. If I was relying on the growth of those savings, I'd be getting nowhere.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Savings? Spend it now as it'll be worth **** all in a few years ...

TX.

GlesgaKiss

Well your savings are guaranteed to be worth **** all if you spend them.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Surely he'll just do a Boris Johnson & ignore it ... there will be a very good reason for not using 5.2% when it comes to wage increases albeit that 5.2% is obviously too low when it comes to ticket price increases

TX.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

At least you'll have something to show for it rather than £0 in the bank just through the passage of time

TX.

GlesgaKiss

Mine aren't in the bank though.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Enlighten me then!

TX.

pslewis

Property is where money should be headed right now.

The Banks are going to go under and all your money lost - at least, with property you have something to touch, feel and enjoy!

zip106

Does anyone know how the CPI is collated?

I do, and it could be very easy to manipulate either way.

GlesgaKiss

I like to hold stocks paying a minimum dividend of 5%. That's your inflation covered already, but stocks should be inflation proof to some extent anyway. So in theory, in the long run, the 5% dividend should be real growth if you reinvest it. All things being equal.

Cash in the bank now is a real problem. If someone can save £5k a year, then clearly, if they're starting with something like £10K savings, they'll be adding quite a lot to it for the next few years. Even at £50k, they'll still be adding 10% to it and beating inflation by roughly 5%. But if that same person had £100k, they'd just be keeping it constant by saving £5k a year. Having said that, I wish I had that problem. Lol

But you can see how, for anyone serious about saving, the banks are just a waste of time, and that's not necessarily a good thing. People will be driven to take risks to get the return. Stocks themselves aren't ideal for a lot of people; we don't know what's going to happen to stock prices over the next few years, or how earnings are going to be affected by any potential Euro/US f*ck up.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I wish British Gas would f*ck off with their adverts every 30 seconds, "Every 5 seconds a boiler breaks down", yes, we know you want to come and charge us 5 grand to replace a grands worth of Boiler you robbing *******s !

I think really, the utilities should be government controlled, most of the infrastructure they are makign their money out of was put in using public money originally and it irks me that the wealthy get share dividends and make profit on people just trying to keep warm, appreciate thats a bit too much like socialism but 20 percent rises to make profit on people not getting hypothermia seems like something that should perhaps be removed from profits or at least Cameron should have a little bit more control over them than a summit that tells people to shop about ffs.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

So what's everyone's predictions for RPI next month then, lets see who is closest, I predict 5.9%.

TelBoy

I'll give you 10 to 1 odds it won't be 5.9%. That's just what you want it to be!

5.1% barring any totally leftfield impacts.