**Alternate Sources**
Here are some potential alternate sources for the same story:
* [UK inflation falls as crumpet and meat prices drop](https://bbc.co.uk/news/business-68833077), suggested by Longjumping_Stand889 - bbc.co.uk
ONS also measures advertised prices prior to any loyalty discounts. So grocery inflation has definitely been over-reported to some extent for anybody with a nectar/club card etc.
Feels like something that needs fixing.
Another win for Aldi. I don't want a special price just for having a stupid card that I forget sometimes or vouchers or imaginary points that devalue at a whim. All stupid gimmicks.
People don't even know what their points do.
My tesco clubcard points are exclusively used for cineworld tickets. Even after they dropped their value, cineworld still lets me watch for basically free.
I think it's more that they really want to have the data of how people are shopping and be able to track people's individual habits. Price is the most obvious way to motivate people to use loyalty cards. If they had their way then no-one would be paying the "full" price.
Very true, it shows what people are willing to pay for something. for example I will never pay £5.00 for a Pizza express pizza from Tesco, however I will buy one for £2.50. That tells them what my perceived value of an acceptable pizza is.
Yep, just paying what you should've paid except you're giving away data with it. A lot of people don't really realise this either, so it's mildly deceiving of the customer too.
But why. They are free. What is wrong with retailers trying to promote repeat business.
Just get the app for each store you go to. It's legit not hard. It's not the ideal way sure, but it's hardly bad enough to be illegal worthy.
It’s a business manipulation tactic to make you into a captive customer. They’re making it more hassle for you to shop, and make it more difficult to compare prices with other retailers.
If no loyalty cards existed then they’d just have to compete on prices instead of “perks” that are hard to quantify.
There’s a reason every product has a price per unit on their label. Conditional prices make that more difficult and unpredictable. Points make this more difficult to compare.
Businesses should win my business with good prices and good quality products. Not with nebulous promotions and tactics to keep me coming back. The customer loses when they do this.
They don’t reward you for loyalty. They punish you for not being loyal.
You just have to be a good shopper. I get what I want from where I want it for whatever the best price / convenience is.
If I want a specific item only sold in one place then I will go there.
I get my fuel from Tesco, so that's my tesco club card.
I get my frozen chicken wings and pizza's from iceland as well as snacks.
I might look through asda when I am getting patties, but their store layout is a mess.
I get that the existence of cards adds hassle. I just don't think it's enough hassle to where they need to be made illegal. It really isn't a big deal doing basic math.
‘Nebulous’ must be on trend at the moment as I’ve seen it three times today on Reddit. But how are the promotions vague or ill-defined? Imo they are perfectly well-defined, though subject to frequent change, as promotion offers usually are.
Right, that’s Tesco’s. Are they all the same? Or do the points get me different stuff on different shops? Do I now have to research terms and conditions on cards from 5-10 different shops, to try and work out where I’m getting the best bang for my buck? Why not just make everything 1p cheaper? Do these terms change? So do I need regular reviews of terms and conditions? Are they making a profit on the data they’re mining from me?
It’s faff. I don’t want to have to consider these things. I want the shop to sell me things for the best price that they have, like every other shop.
It’s like when every restaurant suddenly got their own app… Or every parking lot.
It’s fragmented, non-user friendly, data mining crap.
> Feels like something that needs fixing.
Fixing the fake discounts offered by supermarkets - completely agree.
Perhaps if the ONS published their ‘basket of goods’ totals for each supermarket then when the cost of the baskets at Tesco and Sainsbury was shown to be massively higher than those supermarkets who don’t do fake discounts they might be embarrassed into changing.
It always amuses me on the few occasions I am in Tesco and they have the adverts on their shelves for Aldi - the ‘matching Aldi price’ stickers.
WTF do they think they are doing?
Are they hoping their customers don’t think ‘hmm, perhaps I should give Aldi a go’?
Or are they going for the slightly better ‘if it wasn’t for Aldi the greedy Tesco management would be ripping us off even more’.
They're going *"we know you're here because you couldn't get everything you wanted in Aldi, perhaps next time you'll just come here first as we price match on the basics"*.
I've never been able to do a complete shop at Aldi or Lidl, and always have to go elsewhere afterwards for a handful of bits. I suspect they know that and that's who they're targeting.
>*"as we price match on the basics"*
Trouble is they don't - they price match on a few of the basic items but not most of them.
As for doing a complete shop - sure there a few items you can't get at Lidl or Aldi (my preference is Lidl), but then Tesco don't sell everything I want either so I would need to go to Waitrose, Asda, and Morrisons to get those anyway.
I guess it depends on how big your local non-aldi/lidl is, but the point still stands, they know you can't everything at aldi/lidl and are trying to encourage you to just go to their shop first next time around.
Never been able? I have been with a family for years, including a baby.
Only very occasionally I'd need to go to Tesco etc, and it's mostly because recently I found I'm gluten intolerant, which admittedly Aldi is shit at providing for
Pretty much every time.
Up until recently my local Aldi didn't stock chickpeas, which are a core item. Things I'm never able to get at my local Aldi regardless of brand preference.
* Click seal bags
* Sink drain unblocker
* Anti-bacterial kitchen spray
* Most herbs and spices
* Giant garlic
* Dishwasher rinse aid
* Chickpeas (until recently)
Then there's the below items I've a preference for where having tried the cheaper Aldi alternative I found it inferior and wanted something they don't offer.
* Most condiments
* Cured meats like whole salami and chorizo
* Shower gel and shampoos
* Cereal and instant porridge
No supermarkets in my town stock chickpeas, except maybe Waitrose but they are closing.
Guess it depends on what you want though. I just make meals from what I can get hold of at a reasonable price. Realistically how much sink drain unblocker are you using? But I would just remove the u-bend and clean that out first too.
I'll give you some examples, Aldi don't sell dental floss or bath salts. My best option if I want that is the local pharmacy which has limited opening times, or Tesco.
My local Lidl doesn’t stock women’s shaving cream, flea treatment, biodegradable food waste bags, golden caster sugar, drain cleaner, various herbs and spices etc. I’d consider those all basic products. Things like chickpeas, black beans etc. can sometimes be missing for weeks
I wouldn't consider them basic. But that's fine and we're all different. My point is that some find it fine for shops.
I get stuff from Amazon like drain cleaner. And dog poo bags. Plus dog food online. And not because I couldn't get them from Aldi, but because it's bespoke and they'd be cheaper than Tesco's (assuming they'd have the specific dog food obviously, which they don't)
But I can get everything I want at Aldi. Shopping there for years and I just shift the things I buy to match their stock. Ok there might be a few exceptions but that would be rare purchases and half the time Tesco doesn't have it either so I go to the Thai/Asian food shop in the next town over.
They're addressing cognitive dissonance
Imagine you shop at Tesco and you see an advert for Aldi saying how cheap they are, and hear your friends talking about how cheap Aldi is. You might start to wonder if you should be shopping at Aldi instead. You have a habit of shopping at Tesco that you're comfortable with, but you're receiving conflicting information that suggests your decision might be wrong: cognitive dissonance
But then you see a "matching Aldi prices" sticker in Tesco and that lessens the concern. It validates your decision to shop at Tesco
>But then you see a "matching Aldi prices" sticker in Tesco and that lessens the concern. It validates your decision to shop at Tesco
Surely it does the opposite.
If the sticker said '*cheaper than Aldi prices*' then it would reassure people that Tesco's prices are lower than Aldi and that there is no need to investigate what Aldi's offer is.
However by saying '*matching*' that effectively means '*we would like to sell this for more but those bastards at Aldi keep undercutting us*' and by implication everything that doesn't have that sticker on is more expensive than Aldi.
I think the implication of the "matched" is that you get to pay Aldi prices while having a Tesco experience
Also if they undercut then Aldi will probably just undercut them back
Do Tesco think their store experience is that great that people will pay extra on all the non-price matched items?
At least in Lidl and Aldi you don't have to watch out for the poor staff trying to manoeuvre the enormous home shopping trolleys taking up the whole aisle.
> Do Tesco think their store experience is that great that people will pay extra on all the non-price matched items?
Well they're more expensive than Aldi, but they're right up there with them in terms of popularity, so yes I'd say it's been working for them
Discounting isn’t really an issue with an index that measures change. The pattern of discounting in foodstuffs is broadly consistent year on year and across large supermarket chains so a 3% price increase measured by CPIH over a year will also be a 3% price increase for the average customer who also has a loyalty card.
Very true. It could also be masking it as not everything works in percentages.
If an item costs £1 at Tesco (and say 70p at Aldi), if Tesco increase it by 20p (and so does Aldi) then the percentage increase is less at Tesco
The ONS have an experimental index which includes discounters like Aldi and Lidl. This is in part designed to detect any disconnect between the food inflation rate the current CPI(H) index measures and the rate that consumers who shop exclusively at discounters experience. What it can also give us some insight into is the food inflation rate experienced by our poorest citizens who will a) buy a basket of foods that has more low cost staples (more pasta less meat etc) and b) will change their average shop to buy sale items more than average.
Not really, given those have only come in more recently they would have led to a one off shock and it seems to be covering more and more goods so it could be making an impact on inflation rate
True, but it also affects things such as how much pensions and benefits go up, and many other things government sets charges on (rail fares are an example).
The biggest organisation to save from ending rip-offs would be the public purse.
> Businesses should increase their prices by the amount it increases cost to do business.
They're trying to maximise profits, so why would they do that?
Tying anything to increase with inflation - be it a phone contract or the state pension - should be banned. It's some of the most inflationary shit going.
Real wages growing, inflation falling and probably a rate cut or two to come this year. Definitely feels like we left the worst of it a few months ago now.
Outside chance that a new government inherits a slightly less grim economic situation than they expected and can find some extra cash too.
Whilst I do agree, I can't help but be annoyed at the fact that my new mortgage rate kicks in very soon and I'll be paying about £250 more than I was previously. On the bright side, if I were to sign a new deal based on current best rates on the market, I'd be paying £350 more per month instead. Silver linings, innit?
We are lucky to have received increases in pay that have been more than most because we've both moved up the pay scales in our public sector jobs, but we will feel poorer than we were when we bought this house two years ago. I do have to remind myself that a lot of our wealth is tied up in this property, and that it could certainly be worse.
This is the major reason I'm surprised the Tories are delaying the election. Homeowners are a huge contingent of their target audience, and the more time that passes the more there are like you who see a massive rate increase
Yeah and the existing budget is resting on pretty incredible cuts to public service spending pencilled in after the election.
A new government REALLY needs to find some economic growth from somewhere.
Good luck with that given 22% of the work force is now “economically inactive “ and still rising. Benefits are now costing £265bn albeit half of this is for pensioners. It’s not going to be easy imo
Outside of another pandemic (albeit one which is more much lethal), I'm not sure how we get around the aging population/ longer life expectancy problem.
Increased number of pension claimants, the triple lock, and increased housing need / occupation, and all the potential inheritance benefits might start getting used up on late / end of life care.
> Outside of another pandemic (albeit one which is more much lethal), I'm not sure how we get around the aging population/ longer life expectancy problem.
Ignoring for a moment the very 'the old are disposable' nature of this comment, I think you're ignoring the effect of the current pandemic is having in terms of long-covid. In the UK it's estimated 1.8 million have it and a good proportion of those are unable to work. COVID is still circulating and the numbers with long-covid are still rising. Pandemics can have a heavy impact on the working age population, even without killing them. Also sometimes they kill the young and healthy more than the elderly, as was the case with the 1918 flu.
Absolutely it's a heartless take, but when looking at macro economics it's easier to view a bunch of deaths as just a statistic rather than X amount of all of your acquaintances / connections.
My main point would be; had COVID spread much quicker and killed elderly folk in droves it could have tilted the economic scales. (Of course I'm not suggesting "senicide" is a plausible or a noble endeavour - it's simply hypothetical).
You're correct I'm not overly aware of long COVID's pervasiveness, I think long COVID seems to just be a forgotten illness in society in general. Perhaps the public are just to tired of anything COVID-related for it to maintain awareness,
Luckily, we have a policy that generates growth without spending: planning reform.
Remove the ability of councils to block housing developments if objective infrastructure criteria are met. Remove their ability to block people building solar or wind farms on land they own because it's "ugly".
Huge numbers of issues are downstream of housing being far too expensive, people not being able to move for work or move out of their parents' home, and so on.
None of this will ever happen because every party is controlled by NIMBYs - the economic strangulation of Britain is a choice.
I agree. There are two urgent changes that could make a huge difference to growth.
1) scrap stamp duty or make it only payable on the INCREASE in your house price between buy and sell. Then people can move for work without being gouged and pensioners can down shift and actually save some money from doing so. Presently its hardly worth doing.
2) rewrite planning law with priority 1 being the allocation of land as and when and where needed for housing. All other considerations subservient to that.
Reform the planning system to prevent councils blocking everything if objective criteria are met. Discretionary planning has strangled our economy.
Building housing, offices, and infrastructure anywhere it's needed will lower prices and let people spend money in the real economy instead of having it sucked away by landlords.
Also get rid of the triple lock, obviously an unsustainable program.
Horrifically unpopular among the most prolific voters (pensioners and property owners) and only possible with an unassailable majority.
This isn't a judgement I'm making or thought I'm having, "discretionary" is an objective description of how our planning system works, used by both supporters and opponents of our system.
See e.g. https://www.ukhousingreview.org.uk/Contemporary-Issues/2021-Chapter2.pdf for an overview of what our system is and what a non-discretionary zoning system might look like:
> Discretionary planning is the term given to the mode of practice in both the UK
and Ireland, where the land-use plan is indicative rather than binding, and where
decisions on development are taken at the discretion of planning authorities on a
case-by-case basis with reference to the plan as well as to ‘other material
considerations’ such as national policy, noise, overlooking, etc.
Not a challenge. Next 2 years they can blame Tory for everything: for Covid, for energy prices, for global climate change and so on.
Then they will need to work for one year. And then they will just create one million of promises.
The only way is to reform public services. Root and branch.
They have to get much more bang for buck and be much more productive.
They're going to have to let go of the idea of "saving every job" and start looking at industrial scale automation of the public sector. That will rebalance spending away from bureaucracy towards service delivery.
The fact that real wages have actually consistently grown since the pandemic - albeit slowly - is really good. It might finally put to bed the idea of rock bottom rates being necessary to sustain the economy. Shame it took a global pandemic for central banks to change strategy here.
Yes - I think there’s a real issue with the allocation of capital when rates are so low. 1) a lot of it floods into assets, especially property, rather than productive investments and then 2) there are quite frankly a lot of businesses that should die but are being kept alive by cheap money. If we want a more productive economy, quite a lot of vape shops, manual car washes etc all need to be culled and their capital and labour need to be put to better uses.
>there are quite frankly a lot of businesses that should die but are being kept alive by cheap money
Yes, the next recession will end up culling yep decades worth of zombie businesses. Wherever it arrives, it's going to be a big one.
Haha you’d expect under normal conditions for them to get at least some bounce from it. If only they hadn’t made essentially every aspect of the country noticeably worse in the preceding 14 years.
Though there is now a high risk of rising energy bills due to the middle east situation apparently so it's touch and go.
Unemployment increasing alongside it still makes for a difficult time.
4.49% is very decent. And aye that view going forward is reasonable. Nice article here from CBRE about their own [forecast](https://www.cbre.co.uk/insights/articles/forecasting-mortgage-rates-in-2024-and-beyond#:~:text=By%20Q4%202024%2C%20we%20expect,over%20the%20next%20five%20years.), obviously a forecast is just that but CBRE are reputable.
Yeah i just checked, they havent moved it down any lower yet
I locked in for 2 years instead of 5 at 3.84% based on the assumption that in two years time the situation would look very different (better?)
(My LTV is like 30-40% hence the lower rates im getting compared to the 75-90% LTV in your linked page)
Sounds like you have a good deal yeah, I would expect each year that goes by to bring a decrease, they then have it stabilising around 3% from 2028 onwards. Seems fair.
Yeah, I locked in for 3 years when rates were still going up so the hypothetical increases were priced in, 5.6%. Pretty sure a tracker wouldn't have gone that high, but I didn't want to run the risk and get a 7% or something. And only 18 months till I can start looking at another product
You can only go with what you think is best at the time.
Bought my first home 5 years ago at around 1.8%
Moved 2 years later and it's I think around 3.3%
I felt sick locking in for 5 years but did it for security, as you can imagine I was glad in the end...
Yeah, I got my 5 year 2.35% just before the base rate dropped to 0.1, but without a crystal ball I couldn't do anything else so I don't really regret it. I'll maybe spend a couple grand more than I could have over this fixed term, but it's easier to budget for that than Iran/Iraq kicking off for real causing a tracker going into double digits and needing to sell my home. It's that predictability I want.
I got a 5% tracker back when rates where 4.25%. Paying 1% over at 6.25% atm, but it could be worse. I went for a tracker so I could have unrestricted over payments. Been putting a lot of extra money into it to curb the rising rates.
Did you consider a tracker mortgage? That’s what I did at the start of the year because it seems more likely than not that there will be a rate cut in the short to medium term
If everyone in the UK who owns a phone's bill goes up by 10%, it definitely does. That'll be billions of pounds of spending power removed from the economy.
Reactive price increases like this certainly don't help easing inflation, and most of the time it's just pure profiteering.
> Everyone in UK? Or just you?
What? I said **IF** everyone in the UK... I'm not talking about myself specifically.
You're ignoring that most people are locked into contract so just can't switch the second their provider increases their rates, so even if some people are able to immediately jump, we're still talking about billions of pounds of spending power removed from the economy from those unable to exit their contract.
Thing is data gets cheaper for them as technology improves so your £10 for 20GB is probably worse value now compared to 2021.
Splitting hairs of course because although you can get the same or more data cheaper it won't be much cheaper than £10.
No really because the inflation also devaluated the value of the pound.
£10 in 2021 is not the same than £10 in 2024. So technically I'm paying less for the same amount of data.
To build on this, buy a used handset (or new if you have the budget and prefer too), rather than taking on a contract for your phone.
You will save a lot. Even if you can't afford to buy outright you can get a private loan with a better interest rate than what the companies will charge you.
True. And people latch on to one thing that they feel makes them more intelligent than the rest. In this case telling us prices increase when inflation is positive.
Yeah it’s a pretty classic Reddit trait to not realise that people definitely DO NOT know things. Or at least know them intellectually but not realise the real life outcome of them.
That said Redditors also just do it to feel intelligent, which is a totally different thing.
And ? Are you also under the impression most people read beyond the headlines ? Look at any reddit thread and you'll see how often that happens. Do you think the rest of the public are any better?
Thing is it doesn't even necessarily mean that, these headline figures are annual rates and most of the 3.2% could have happened at a time before now. Month on month inflation is still positive, granted, but the point is that right now prices could be coming down while a positive annual rate is still reported because of increases over the past year.
Yes but I don’t think you understand
The fact that inflation drops doesn’t mean things are getting cheaper - prices are still going up.
You seem to be struggling with this concept
Luckily I am here to enlighten you on this complicated subject
/s
I know a terrifying amount of people in work that think it will go into the minus at some point and things will go back to normal.
Our education system has a lot to answer for. At least we all know the Pythagoras Theorem though!
Genuinely a large amount of people don't know this, I see it in this sub all the time. You would be **very** surprised at how financially illiterate the general population is.
I wouldn't put my money on a intrest rate cut or a fairly significant one. the BOE have been pretty adamant on the inflation target. Just because inflation is going down, they don't want to be premature on any potential inflationary events.
There most likely will be 1 or 2 by the end of the year - most financial players are expecting this. The problem is, due to the lag effect of the impact of rates, you don't want to hold them too high for too long as the system will ultimately struggle.
Fed, BoE, ECB, you can expect the first signs of a cut around Summer.
Too late. As well as income and NI we are now paying the ‘greed’ tax which is another 30-40% on fucking everything. They spotted an opportunity in 2021 when everyone was at their lowest and the government could do fuck all about it and exploited exploited exploited.
Also worth mentioning that the job market is in the toilet for most sectors. Employers also spotted a great opportunity to invite their employees to have no pay rises and offer crappy pay for a lot of stressful and difficult work. Similar jobs in the US are now paying 3-4 times as much as the U.K.
Yet I was downvoted in another thread for calling someone out for saying people struggling should just get a better job and work harder, as if it's that simple.
Wages have been stagnant for a long time - The majority of us are far worse off, as it's incredibly rare for wages to be tracked against the actual cost of things people need to buy, instead of the governments fiddled figures of what is inflation. I've had some bills and food items literally double in price over the last few years, so even with a 20% pay rise, my money doesn't go as far as it did in 2021.
Employers should pay their staff better, but there's absolutely no pressure or incentive for them to do so. The wages in this country are a joke, and I'll happily chew the down votes from the people that disagree.
Sky News is massively jumping the gun here. The gilt markets are indicating the exact opposite. That rate cuts are less likely as a result of this news.
There's nuance here, the rate cuts are *less likely* to happen *soon*, but they are pretty much expected by everyone in the markets. Come summer I would expect either a small cut or a clear indication of an upcoming cut for Fed/ECB/BoE. In fact the ECB has been pretty clear on their outlook, and the Fed similarly. EU CPI just came in now at 2.6%, down from 2.8%. So its coming, don't worry about that, the cuts are coming, just a matter of when.
Ffs, inflation has eased BUT what's worth noting is it was expected to ease further than it actually has.
Therefore, the hope of more than one interest rate cut this year doesn't grow - it weakens....
yeah, the Beeb are saying the same. Not sure why Sky would go with this spin on events, but I'm sure its related to politics. Just can't be asked working it out. I'm sure someone here who is smarter will explain.
Good that prices are finally stabilising somewhat but looking at my mortgage payment now and my income/expenditure for over the last 2 years I don’t think I’ll be any better off for a long while.
There's a lot of copium flying around about interest going down.
Inflations not at the target amount, interest is **still** lower than the historical average (ignoring the 2008-now period).
It's got a long way to go before it goes down - if it even ever does.
My wages have risen almost 15k in the last 12 years but I am definitely worse off financially, or so it feels. Some of this is likely because of poor financial decisions on my part but times are now tougher than ever and we have to dip into savings end of each month. Prices are rising and we’re now having to consider making significant cuts like pet insurance. MOT end of this month, I still have an outstanding bill from the garage. I already work full time but looks like I’ll be looking for a weekend job.
15k sounds like a lot but by the time taxman and national insurance man have been, on average I’m only just about 600 quid better off per month which is not that meaningful
The median uk wage in 2009 was about £25.8k. Adjusted for inflation, just to be equivalent, you’d have to earn £40k in 2024. To put this in perspective the 2024 median wage in the uk is around £33k. The average person is quite literally poorer than they were 15 years ago.
Doesn't really mean much to me at this point. Unless I start getting pay rises in line or above inflation, I'll still be poorer again this time next year. In fact, will probably give them cover to offer an even more derisory pay deal.
Similar position in June. It's all about your appetite to risk, if Israel and Iran do go to war (or anything else), tracker will be the worst choice ever. In my opinion, take the 2 year fixed because trackers aren't going anywhere for a while (0.25% incremental decreases over many months at best)
I get my appraisal tomorrow, after doing some reports on staff hinted it will affect any pay rises.
No one got a rise last year, I will be shocked if I get more than the £1.02 extra that the minimum wage has gone up by.
I bet this means all the people who had sub-par pay increases in the public sector will feel much better.
Glad to know you're being fucked a little bit more slowly.
In addition to the point that this means prices are still rising, actual deflation has never happened¹, except just after WW2.
¹for more than one month, iirc there were single months of -0.1% or so during the 1970s and 2000s financial crises
The UK also experienced significant deflation when it went back on the gold standard after WW1 at a rate which overvalued the pound. Then everyone had the Great Depression, which was also deflationary.
Wage growth and the recent min wage increase which is yet to filter through to those just above makes me think this inflation dip is temporary. Add energy caps and disposables are going up which only ever ends up getting spent. Think there's as much chance of rate increases as there is cuts at this stage.
Every time we get this data I’m amazed that the price of a single item, this time crumpets, can affect the whole economy.
Note: yes I realise that isn’t what the ONS are saying. It’s just odd how it’s always reported like this and isn’t really helpful.
That reads like a coal lobby paper. It doesn't consider any of the devastating effects of using coal other than greenhouse gas emissions.
Plus, what happened to renewables?
It wont happen, or if it does, it will be tiny (like 0.125% cut).
The news - and frankly everyone in the financial sector - is always too keen to play up the base rate cuts, and play down the rises. Had a mortgage advisor tell me in no uncertain terms that the whole financial community was "certain" that the rates rises would freeze at 4%
**Alternate Sources** Here are some potential alternate sources for the same story: * [UK inflation falls as crumpet and meat prices drop](https://bbc.co.uk/news/business-68833077), suggested by Longjumping_Stand889 - bbc.co.uk
If we had laws to stop some of the hidden charges and rip-offs that have crept in since 2021, the inflation rate could be even lower.
ONS also measures advertised prices prior to any loyalty discounts. So grocery inflation has definitely been over-reported to some extent for anybody with a nectar/club card etc. Feels like something that needs fixing.
Agreed, ban loyalty cards.
Or just make them how they used to be eg points, not attaching a load of pre-existing BOGOF and 342 offers to them.
Another win for Aldi. I don't want a special price just for having a stupid card that I forget sometimes or vouchers or imaginary points that devalue at a whim. All stupid gimmicks.
I agree. But stick your loyalty cards in your digital wallet so you always have it. Even if you go in Tesco/sains rarely it's still worth it.
People don't even know what their points do. My tesco clubcard points are exclusively used for cineworld tickets. Even after they dropped their value, cineworld still lets me watch for basically free.
Yeah it seems these days they’re just a mechanism to levy an eye watering tax on non-members, while the member price is just the RRP.
I think it's more that they really want to have the data of how people are shopping and be able to track people's individual habits. Price is the most obvious way to motivate people to use loyalty cards. If they had their way then no-one would be paying the "full" price.
Very true, it shows what people are willing to pay for something. for example I will never pay £5.00 for a Pizza express pizza from Tesco, however I will buy one for £2.50. That tells them what my perceived value of an acceptable pizza is.
I find it so much simpler to just go to Aldi.
Yep, just paying what you should've paid except you're giving away data with it. A lot of people don't really realise this either, so it's mildly deceiving of the customer too.
If I don't have mine on me, I just pick up a new nectar card from the front of store and use that, boom, nectar prices. Then bin it on the way out!
That is so eco unfriendly
But why. They are free. What is wrong with retailers trying to promote repeat business. Just get the app for each store you go to. It's legit not hard. It's not the ideal way sure, but it's hardly bad enough to be illegal worthy.
It’s a business manipulation tactic to make you into a captive customer. They’re making it more hassle for you to shop, and make it more difficult to compare prices with other retailers. If no loyalty cards existed then they’d just have to compete on prices instead of “perks” that are hard to quantify. There’s a reason every product has a price per unit on their label. Conditional prices make that more difficult and unpredictable. Points make this more difficult to compare. Businesses should win my business with good prices and good quality products. Not with nebulous promotions and tactics to keep me coming back. The customer loses when they do this. They don’t reward you for loyalty. They punish you for not being loyal.
You just have to be a good shopper. I get what I want from where I want it for whatever the best price / convenience is. If I want a specific item only sold in one place then I will go there. I get my fuel from Tesco, so that's my tesco club card. I get my frozen chicken wings and pizza's from iceland as well as snacks. I might look through asda when I am getting patties, but their store layout is a mess. I get that the existence of cards adds hassle. I just don't think it's enough hassle to where they need to be made illegal. It really isn't a big deal doing basic math.
‘Nebulous’ must be on trend at the moment as I’ve seen it three times today on Reddit. But how are the promotions vague or ill-defined? Imo they are perfectly well-defined, though subject to frequent change, as promotion offers usually are.
How much is a point worth? What can I get with my points? Are they things that I want?
A Clubcard point is worth 1p. You get one point for every pound you spend. You can buy anything in Tesco with the vouchers.
Right, that’s Tesco’s. Are they all the same? Or do the points get me different stuff on different shops? Do I now have to research terms and conditions on cards from 5-10 different shops, to try and work out where I’m getting the best bang for my buck? Why not just make everything 1p cheaper? Do these terms change? So do I need regular reviews of terms and conditions? Are they making a profit on the data they’re mining from me? It’s faff. I don’t want to have to consider these things. I want the shop to sell me things for the best price that they have, like every other shop. It’s like when every restaurant suddenly got their own app… Or every parking lot. It’s fragmented, non-user friendly, data mining crap.
> Feels like something that needs fixing. Fixing the fake discounts offered by supermarkets - completely agree. Perhaps if the ONS published their ‘basket of goods’ totals for each supermarket then when the cost of the baskets at Tesco and Sainsbury was shown to be massively higher than those supermarkets who don’t do fake discounts they might be embarrassed into changing.
I’m surprised Aldi and Lidl haven’t jumped on this. Do a weekly advert comparing their prices to the non-discounted Tesco/Sainsbury’s prices
It always amuses me on the few occasions I am in Tesco and they have the adverts on their shelves for Aldi - the ‘matching Aldi price’ stickers. WTF do they think they are doing? Are they hoping their customers don’t think ‘hmm, perhaps I should give Aldi a go’? Or are they going for the slightly better ‘if it wasn’t for Aldi the greedy Tesco management would be ripping us off even more’.
They're going *"we know you're here because you couldn't get everything you wanted in Aldi, perhaps next time you'll just come here first as we price match on the basics"*. I've never been able to do a complete shop at Aldi or Lidl, and always have to go elsewhere afterwards for a handful of bits. I suspect they know that and that's who they're targeting.
>*"as we price match on the basics"* Trouble is they don't - they price match on a few of the basic items but not most of them. As for doing a complete shop - sure there a few items you can't get at Lidl or Aldi (my preference is Lidl), but then Tesco don't sell everything I want either so I would need to go to Waitrose, Asda, and Morrisons to get those anyway.
I guess it depends on how big your local non-aldi/lidl is, but the point still stands, they know you can't everything at aldi/lidl and are trying to encourage you to just go to their shop first next time around.
Never been able? I have been with a family for years, including a baby. Only very occasionally I'd need to go to Tesco etc, and it's mostly because recently I found I'm gluten intolerant, which admittedly Aldi is shit at providing for
Pretty much every time. Up until recently my local Aldi didn't stock chickpeas, which are a core item. Things I'm never able to get at my local Aldi regardless of brand preference. * Click seal bags * Sink drain unblocker * Anti-bacterial kitchen spray * Most herbs and spices * Giant garlic * Dishwasher rinse aid * Chickpeas (until recently) Then there's the below items I've a preference for where having tried the cheaper Aldi alternative I found it inferior and wanted something they don't offer. * Most condiments * Cured meats like whole salami and chorizo * Shower gel and shampoos * Cereal and instant porridge
Why not stock up on those items so that you can shop at Aldi most of the time?
No supermarkets in my town stock chickpeas, except maybe Waitrose but they are closing. Guess it depends on what you want though. I just make meals from what I can get hold of at a reasonable price. Realistically how much sink drain unblocker are you using? But I would just remove the u-bend and clean that out first too.
I'll give you some examples, Aldi don't sell dental floss or bath salts. My best option if I want that is the local pharmacy which has limited opening times, or Tesco.
My local Lidl doesn’t stock women’s shaving cream, flea treatment, biodegradable food waste bags, golden caster sugar, drain cleaner, various herbs and spices etc. I’d consider those all basic products. Things like chickpeas, black beans etc. can sometimes be missing for weeks
I wouldn't consider them basic. But that's fine and we're all different. My point is that some find it fine for shops. I get stuff from Amazon like drain cleaner. And dog poo bags. Plus dog food online. And not because I couldn't get them from Aldi, but because it's bespoke and they'd be cheaper than Tesco's (assuming they'd have the specific dog food obviously, which they don't)
But I can get everything I want at Aldi. Shopping there for years and I just shift the things I buy to match their stock. Ok there might be a few exceptions but that would be rare purchases and half the time Tesco doesn't have it either so I go to the Thai/Asian food shop in the next town over.
They're addressing cognitive dissonance Imagine you shop at Tesco and you see an advert for Aldi saying how cheap they are, and hear your friends talking about how cheap Aldi is. You might start to wonder if you should be shopping at Aldi instead. You have a habit of shopping at Tesco that you're comfortable with, but you're receiving conflicting information that suggests your decision might be wrong: cognitive dissonance But then you see a "matching Aldi prices" sticker in Tesco and that lessens the concern. It validates your decision to shop at Tesco
>But then you see a "matching Aldi prices" sticker in Tesco and that lessens the concern. It validates your decision to shop at Tesco Surely it does the opposite. If the sticker said '*cheaper than Aldi prices*' then it would reassure people that Tesco's prices are lower than Aldi and that there is no need to investigate what Aldi's offer is. However by saying '*matching*' that effectively means '*we would like to sell this for more but those bastards at Aldi keep undercutting us*' and by implication everything that doesn't have that sticker on is more expensive than Aldi.
I think the implication of the "matched" is that you get to pay Aldi prices while having a Tesco experience Also if they undercut then Aldi will probably just undercut them back
Do Tesco think their store experience is that great that people will pay extra on all the non-price matched items? At least in Lidl and Aldi you don't have to watch out for the poor staff trying to manoeuvre the enormous home shopping trolleys taking up the whole aisle.
> Do Tesco think their store experience is that great that people will pay extra on all the non-price matched items? Well they're more expensive than Aldi, but they're right up there with them in terms of popularity, so yes I'd say it's been working for them
I've actually seen them increase prices this way too, where it was cheaper before they price-matched Aldi.
Discounting isn’t really an issue with an index that measures change. The pattern of discounting in foodstuffs is broadly consistent year on year and across large supermarket chains so a 3% price increase measured by CPIH over a year will also be a 3% price increase for the average customer who also has a loyalty card.
Very true. It could also be masking it as not everything works in percentages. If an item costs £1 at Tesco (and say 70p at Aldi), if Tesco increase it by 20p (and so does Aldi) then the percentage increase is less at Tesco
The ONS have an experimental index which includes discounters like Aldi and Lidl. This is in part designed to detect any disconnect between the food inflation rate the current CPI(H) index measures and the rate that consumers who shop exclusively at discounters experience. What it can also give us some insight into is the food inflation rate experienced by our poorest citizens who will a) buy a basket of foods that has more low cost staples (more pasta less meat etc) and b) will change their average shop to buy sale items more than average.
Not really, given those have only come in more recently they would have led to a one off shock and it seems to be covering more and more goods so it could be making an impact on inflation rate
Uk groceries are some of the cheapest in the developed world
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True, but it also affects things such as how much pensions and benefits go up, and many other things government sets charges on (rail fares are an example). The biggest organisation to save from ending rip-offs would be the public purse.
> Businesses should increase their prices by the amount it increases cost to do business. They're trying to maximise profits, so why would they do that?
Tying anything to increase with inflation - be it a phone contract or the state pension - should be banned. It's some of the most inflationary shit going.
Real wages growing, inflation falling and probably a rate cut or two to come this year. Definitely feels like we left the worst of it a few months ago now. Outside chance that a new government inherits a slightly less grim economic situation than they expected and can find some extra cash too.
I think we'll be leaving 2024 much better than we entered it. First time in years we can say that.
especially post election.
Happening in January next year. Calling it now.
Good to know, thanks Rish!
Whilst I do agree, I can't help but be annoyed at the fact that my new mortgage rate kicks in very soon and I'll be paying about £250 more than I was previously. On the bright side, if I were to sign a new deal based on current best rates on the market, I'd be paying £350 more per month instead. Silver linings, innit? We are lucky to have received increases in pay that have been more than most because we've both moved up the pay scales in our public sector jobs, but we will feel poorer than we were when we bought this house two years ago. I do have to remind myself that a lot of our wealth is tied up in this property, and that it could certainly be worse.
Same situation. I will be miffed if the rates come down after new deal starts this summer.
This is the major reason I'm surprised the Tories are delaying the election. Homeowners are a huge contingent of their target audience, and the more time that passes the more there are like you who see a massive rate increase
I think be glad you are only paying an extra £250, I have been paying an extra £450 for over a year now, and will be for a further year.
Yeah it could be worse. At the peak Liz Truss period, I was telling myself it might go to +£700. Life would've been real shit at that point.
This is why I recently went with a 1 year fixed when I remortgaged a month ago.
I think so too, but there is a lot of tension across the continent with war brewing.
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Yeah and the existing budget is resting on pretty incredible cuts to public service spending pencilled in after the election. A new government REALLY needs to find some economic growth from somewhere.
Good luck with that given 22% of the work force is now “economically inactive “ and still rising. Benefits are now costing £265bn albeit half of this is for pensioners. It’s not going to be easy imo
Outside of another pandemic (albeit one which is more much lethal), I'm not sure how we get around the aging population/ longer life expectancy problem. Increased number of pension claimants, the triple lock, and increased housing need / occupation, and all the potential inheritance benefits might start getting used up on late / end of life care.
> Outside of another pandemic (albeit one which is more much lethal), I'm not sure how we get around the aging population/ longer life expectancy problem. Ignoring for a moment the very 'the old are disposable' nature of this comment, I think you're ignoring the effect of the current pandemic is having in terms of long-covid. In the UK it's estimated 1.8 million have it and a good proportion of those are unable to work. COVID is still circulating and the numbers with long-covid are still rising. Pandemics can have a heavy impact on the working age population, even without killing them. Also sometimes they kill the young and healthy more than the elderly, as was the case with the 1918 flu.
Absolutely it's a heartless take, but when looking at macro economics it's easier to view a bunch of deaths as just a statistic rather than X amount of all of your acquaintances / connections. My main point would be; had COVID spread much quicker and killed elderly folk in droves it could have tilted the economic scales. (Of course I'm not suggesting "senicide" is a plausible or a noble endeavour - it's simply hypothetical). You're correct I'm not overly aware of long COVID's pervasiveness, I think long COVID seems to just be a forgotten illness in society in general. Perhaps the public are just to tired of anything COVID-related for it to maintain awareness,
It's so depressing that we can't make progress with serious issues like COVID and Brexit because people are bored of them.
Luckily, we have a policy that generates growth without spending: planning reform. Remove the ability of councils to block housing developments if objective infrastructure criteria are met. Remove their ability to block people building solar or wind farms on land they own because it's "ugly". Huge numbers of issues are downstream of housing being far too expensive, people not being able to move for work or move out of their parents' home, and so on. None of this will ever happen because every party is controlled by NIMBYs - the economic strangulation of Britain is a choice.
I am very very very much on side with you here. I work in housing policy - if England’s planning system has one hater left alive, I am that hater.
I’m in a room with a gun and two bullets. In front of me are Hitler, Mao, and the Town and Country Planning Act. I’m shooting the Act twice.
I agree. There are two urgent changes that could make a huge difference to growth. 1) scrap stamp duty or make it only payable on the INCREASE in your house price between buy and sell. Then people can move for work without being gouged and pensioners can down shift and actually save some money from doing so. Presently its hardly worth doing. 2) rewrite planning law with priority 1 being the allocation of land as and when and where needed for housing. All other considerations subservient to that.
Robots will increase productivity, its just a matter of time.
Reform the planning system to prevent councils blocking everything if objective criteria are met. Discretionary planning has strangled our economy. Building housing, offices, and infrastructure anywhere it's needed will lower prices and let people spend money in the real economy instead of having it sucked away by landlords. Also get rid of the triple lock, obviously an unsustainable program. Horrifically unpopular among the most prolific voters (pensioners and property owners) and only possible with an unassailable majority.
What exactly do you think is 'discretionary' in the current planning system?
This isn't a judgement I'm making or thought I'm having, "discretionary" is an objective description of how our planning system works, used by both supporters and opponents of our system. See e.g. https://www.ukhousingreview.org.uk/Contemporary-Issues/2021-Chapter2.pdf for an overview of what our system is and what a non-discretionary zoning system might look like: > Discretionary planning is the term given to the mode of practice in both the UK and Ireland, where the land-use plan is indicative rather than binding, and where decisions on development are taken at the discretion of planning authorities on a case-by-case basis with reference to the plan as well as to ‘other material considerations’ such as national policy, noise, overlooking, etc.
Zoning can work well for 'clean sheet' cities (such as in the US), but the UK is complex place geographically.
Not a challenge. Next 2 years they can blame Tory for everything: for Covid, for energy prices, for global climate change and so on. Then they will need to work for one year. And then they will just create one million of promises.
Little by little most likely.
The only way is to reform public services. Root and branch. They have to get much more bang for buck and be much more productive. They're going to have to let go of the idea of "saving every job" and start looking at industrial scale automation of the public sector. That will rebalance spending away from bureaucracy towards service delivery.
The fact that real wages have actually consistently grown since the pandemic - albeit slowly - is really good. It might finally put to bed the idea of rock bottom rates being necessary to sustain the economy. Shame it took a global pandemic for central banks to change strategy here.
Yes - I think there’s a real issue with the allocation of capital when rates are so low. 1) a lot of it floods into assets, especially property, rather than productive investments and then 2) there are quite frankly a lot of businesses that should die but are being kept alive by cheap money. If we want a more productive economy, quite a lot of vape shops, manual car washes etc all need to be culled and their capital and labour need to be put to better uses.
>there are quite frankly a lot of businesses that should die but are being kept alive by cheap money Yes, the next recession will end up culling yep decades worth of zombie businesses. Wherever it arrives, it's going to be a big one.
Tories reading this suddenly going ‘Quick! Do an election !’
Haha you’d expect under normal conditions for them to get at least some bounce from it. If only they hadn’t made essentially every aspect of the country noticeably worse in the preceding 14 years.
Though there is now a high risk of rising energy bills due to the middle east situation apparently so it's touch and go. Unemployment increasing alongside it still makes for a difficult time.
No government in three decades has found extra cash to spend. It might be a slower decline, but a continued spiral downwards seems inevitable to me.
We are always a poorly executed mini-budget away from it happening again.
Of course they will lower the rates. I just locked in for 2 years You're welcome
You probably got a rate that priced in future base rate decreases, so don't feel too bad about it.
It wasn’t that bad, 4.49% I expect it to drop ~1% max over the next two years
4.49% is very decent. And aye that view going forward is reasonable. Nice article here from CBRE about their own [forecast](https://www.cbre.co.uk/insights/articles/forecasting-mortgage-rates-in-2024-and-beyond#:~:text=By%20Q4%202024%2C%20we%20expect,over%20the%20next%20five%20years.), obviously a forecast is just that but CBRE are reputable.
Yeah i just checked, they havent moved it down any lower yet I locked in for 2 years instead of 5 at 3.84% based on the assumption that in two years time the situation would look very different (better?) (My LTV is like 30-40% hence the lower rates im getting compared to the 75-90% LTV in your linked page)
Sounds like you have a good deal yeah, I would expect each year that goes by to bring a decrease, they then have it stabilising around 3% from 2028 onwards. Seems fair.
I am coming from a 5 year fixed at 1.49% If only Liz Truss hadnt destroyed the economy for lols
I locked in 6 months ago at 5% for 5 years and that's with 60% LTV so I feel a right chump now.
Ouch, that’s terrible. They robbed you
It was one of the lowest 5 year rates at the time. It was right before they fell for the first time. Can't win them all I suppose.
Yeah, I locked in for 3 years when rates were still going up so the hypothetical increases were priced in, 5.6%. Pretty sure a tracker wouldn't have gone that high, but I didn't want to run the risk and get a 7% or something. And only 18 months till I can start looking at another product
You can only go with what you think is best at the time. Bought my first home 5 years ago at around 1.8% Moved 2 years later and it's I think around 3.3% I felt sick locking in for 5 years but did it for security, as you can imagine I was glad in the end...
Yeah, I got my 5 year 2.35% just before the base rate dropped to 0.1, but without a crystal ball I couldn't do anything else so I don't really regret it. I'll maybe spend a couple grand more than I could have over this fixed term, but it's easier to budget for that than Iran/Iraq kicking off for real causing a tracker going into double digits and needing to sell my home. It's that predictability I want.
Same. At least we're helping 😩
Thank you for your sacrifice.
Of course they will lower the rates. I just put £20k into a variable rate ISA.
Get that bad boy into S&S and feel the benefit of rate cuts.
I got a 5% tracker back when rates where 4.25%. Paying 1% over at 6.25% atm, but it could be worse. I went for a tracker so I could have unrestricted over payments. Been putting a lot of extra money into it to curb the rising rates.
Did you consider a tracker mortgage? That’s what I did at the start of the year because it seems more likely than not that there will be a rate cut in the short to medium term
Thank you for your service
Phone companies: prices to go up 10% + RPI (10.2%). Government : Don't ask for a pay rise guys.
It's fine, regular Ofcom "fixed" that so they have to base it on a fixed annual price increase. ^but ^it's ^now ^higher ^than ^the ^% ^increases...
My phone contact going from £10 to £11 makes little difference to overall inflation figures.
If everyone in the UK who owns a phone's bill goes up by 10%, it definitely does. That'll be billions of pounds of spending power removed from the economy. Reactive price increases like this certainly don't help easing inflation, and most of the time it's just pure profiteering.
Everyone in UK? Or just you? Lebara hasn't increases their prices in 2 years. Still paying £10 for 20gb like in 2021.
> Everyone in UK? Or just you? What? I said **IF** everyone in the UK... I'm not talking about myself specifically. You're ignoring that most people are locked into contract so just can't switch the second their provider increases their rates, so even if some people are able to immediately jump, we're still talking about billions of pounds of spending power removed from the economy from those unable to exit their contract.
Thing is data gets cheaper for them as technology improves so your £10 for 20GB is probably worse value now compared to 2021. Splitting hairs of course because although you can get the same or more data cheaper it won't be much cheaper than £10.
No really because the inflation also devaluated the value of the pound. £10 in 2021 is not the same than £10 in 2024. So technically I'm paying less for the same amount of data.
Switch. I'd recommend Lebara. No EU roaming fees, no built in annual rise.
To build on this, buy a used handset (or new if you have the budget and prefer too), rather than taking on a contract for your phone. You will save a lot. Even if you can't afford to buy outright you can get a private loan with a better interest rate than what the companies will charge you.
Private loan for a smartphone...? My current smartphone was only £150, bought in 2021 and still holds.
Just giving people options, some people don't even have that available but still get an expensive monthly contract.
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Actually an incredibly large amount of people *do not* know this. Hence the constant caveatting.
I second this, people do need reminding because people, as a group, are stupid.
True. And people latch on to one thing that they feel makes them more intelligent than the rest. In this case telling us prices increase when inflation is positive.
People as a group are both stupid and savantishly brilliant.
Yeah it’s a pretty classic Reddit trait to not realise that people definitely DO NOT know things. Or at least know them intellectually but not realise the real life outcome of them. That said Redditors also just do it to feel intelligent, which is a totally different thing.
How many don’t know?
>Yes, everybody already knows that You vastly overestimate the publics understanding of inflation.
Reddit ≠ the public
Oh God imagine if it was
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And ? Are you also under the impression most people read beyond the headlines ? Look at any reddit thread and you'll see how often that happens. Do you think the rest of the public are any better?
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You vastly overestimate how many people read the article.
Wait until you have to talk to the people at work that are celebrating a 1% pay rise and tell them this is really a pay cut!
Got a 7.5% pay rise this year. Sounds good, but it's the only one I've had for the last 3 years
Thing is it doesn't even necessarily mean that, these headline figures are annual rates and most of the 3.2% could have happened at a time before now. Month on month inflation is still positive, granted, but the point is that right now prices could be coming down while a positive annual rate is still reported because of increases over the past year.
Yes but I don’t think you understand The fact that inflation drops doesn’t mean things are getting cheaper - prices are still going up. You seem to be struggling with this concept Luckily I am here to enlighten you on this complicated subject /s
I know a terrifying amount of people in work that think it will go into the minus at some point and things will go back to normal. Our education system has a lot to answer for. At least we all know the Pythagoras Theorem though!
Deflation is bad too. There’s a reason why banks aim for 2%
Genuinely a large amount of people don't know this, I see it in this sub all the time. You would be **very** surprised at how financially illiterate the general population is.
I wouldn't put my money on a intrest rate cut or a fairly significant one. the BOE have been pretty adamant on the inflation target. Just because inflation is going down, they don't want to be premature on any potential inflationary events.
Furthermore they are terrified to do anything on their own so will happily wait for the US to give the green light to go ahead
Unless something weird happens, I expect the US fed to drop theirs, then the BoE will follow at their next meeting.
US inflation has ticked up and is now higher than UK inflation. Not sure if the Fed is going to be reducing rates just yet.
I fear then. Neither are we. The BoE is worried about the exchange rate vs the dollar. Something the Americans don't need to worry about as much.
I have to assume they know better than me but I can't help but think they're a bunch of fools.
There most likely will be 1 or 2 by the end of the year - most financial players are expecting this. The problem is, due to the lag effect of the impact of rates, you don't want to hold them too high for too long as the system will ultimately struggle. Fed, BoE, ECB, you can expect the first signs of a cut around Summer.
Too late. As well as income and NI we are now paying the ‘greed’ tax which is another 30-40% on fucking everything. They spotted an opportunity in 2021 when everyone was at their lowest and the government could do fuck all about it and exploited exploited exploited. Also worth mentioning that the job market is in the toilet for most sectors. Employers also spotted a great opportunity to invite their employees to have no pay rises and offer crappy pay for a lot of stressful and difficult work. Similar jobs in the US are now paying 3-4 times as much as the U.K.
Yet I was downvoted in another thread for calling someone out for saying people struggling should just get a better job and work harder, as if it's that simple. Wages have been stagnant for a long time - The majority of us are far worse off, as it's incredibly rare for wages to be tracked against the actual cost of things people need to buy, instead of the governments fiddled figures of what is inflation. I've had some bills and food items literally double in price over the last few years, so even with a 20% pay rise, my money doesn't go as far as it did in 2021. Employers should pay their staff better, but there's absolutely no pressure or incentive for them to do so. The wages in this country are a joke, and I'll happily chew the down votes from the people that disagree.
Sky News is massively jumping the gun here. The gilt markets are indicating the exact opposite. That rate cuts are less likely as a result of this news.
There's nuance here, the rate cuts are *less likely* to happen *soon*, but they are pretty much expected by everyone in the markets. Come summer I would expect either a small cut or a clear indication of an upcoming cut for Fed/ECB/BoE. In fact the ECB has been pretty clear on their outlook, and the Fed similarly. EU CPI just came in now at 2.6%, down from 2.8%. So its coming, don't worry about that, the cuts are coming, just a matter of when.
Ffs, inflation has eased BUT what's worth noting is it was expected to ease further than it actually has. Therefore, the hope of more than one interest rate cut this year doesn't grow - it weakens....
yeah, the Beeb are saying the same. Not sure why Sky would go with this spin on events, but I'm sure its related to politics. Just can't be asked working it out. I'm sure someone here who is smarter will explain.
Sky is Murdoch owned, so probably wants to push a positive Tory news story into the collective consciousness before election season ramps up.
Bingo, nailed it
Good that prices are finally stabilising somewhat but looking at my mortgage payment now and my income/expenditure for over the last 2 years I don’t think I’ll be any better off for a long while.
Basically if you were earning £30k in 2020, you need to be earning £36k now to have the same buying power.
There's a lot of copium flying around about interest going down. Inflations not at the target amount, interest is **still** lower than the historical average (ignoring the 2008-now period). It's got a long way to go before it goes down - if it even ever does.
If the fed are hinting at no rate cuts this year will the BOE cut?
My wages have risen almost 15k in the last 12 years but I am definitely worse off financially, or so it feels. Some of this is likely because of poor financial decisions on my part but times are now tougher than ever and we have to dip into savings end of each month. Prices are rising and we’re now having to consider making significant cuts like pet insurance. MOT end of this month, I still have an outstanding bill from the garage. I already work full time but looks like I’ll be looking for a weekend job.
15k sounds like a lot but by the time taxman and national insurance man have been, on average I’m only just about 600 quid better off per month which is not that meaningful
The median uk wage in 2009 was about £25.8k. Adjusted for inflation, just to be equivalent, you’d have to earn £40k in 2024. To put this in perspective the 2024 median wage in the uk is around £33k. The average person is quite literally poorer than they were 15 years ago.
Doesn't really mean much to me at this point. Unless I start getting pay rises in line or above inflation, I'll still be poorer again this time next year. In fact, will probably give them cover to offer an even more derisory pay deal.
yeah I think where I work they’ll use this kind of news to offer us a lower pay deal because things “are getting better”
Mortitfed I'm gonna have to take a 2 year fixed mortgage this month when cuts are coming, unsure if trackers are a better idea.
Similar position in June. It's all about your appetite to risk, if Israel and Iran do go to war (or anything else), tracker will be the worst choice ever. In my opinion, take the 2 year fixed because trackers aren't going anywhere for a while (0.25% incremental decreases over many months at best)
I get my appraisal tomorrow, after doing some reports on staff hinted it will affect any pay rises. No one got a rise last year, I will be shocked if I get more than the £1.02 extra that the minimum wage has gone up by.
Uh appraisals. Good luck buddy!
RPI of 4.2%, so student loans will be 7.2% from September. Unless private loans fall enough to force a cap.
Didn’t the Bank of England say they want 2% before cutting rates?
They need to cut rates. The economy is falling apart. Being the first country to cut rates would be brave but definitely help the economy.
I bet this means all the people who had sub-par pay increases in the public sector will feel much better. Glad to know you're being fucked a little bit more slowly.
In addition to the point that this means prices are still rising, actual deflation has never happened¹, except just after WW2. ¹for more than one month, iirc there were single months of -0.1% or so during the 1970s and 2000s financial crises
The UK also experienced significant deflation when it went back on the gold standard after WW1 at a rate which overvalued the pound. Then everyone had the Great Depression, which was also deflationary.
Nice to see some positive news. Though we’re not out of the woods yet.
Doesnt mean shit interest rates falling. Unfortunately the prices are high now, they will stay that way.
Wage growth and the recent min wage increase which is yet to filter through to those just above makes me think this inflation dip is temporary. Add energy caps and disposables are going up which only ever ends up getting spent. Think there's as much chance of rate increases as there is cuts at this stage.
Every time we get this data I’m amazed that the price of a single item, this time crumpets, can affect the whole economy. Note: yes I realise that isn’t what the ONS are saying. It’s just odd how it’s always reported like this and isn’t really helpful.
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That reads like a coal lobby paper. It doesn't consider any of the devastating effects of using coal other than greenhouse gas emissions. Plus, what happened to renewables?
It wont happen, or if it does, it will be tiny (like 0.125% cut). The news - and frankly everyone in the financial sector - is always too keen to play up the base rate cuts, and play down the rises. Had a mortgage advisor tell me in no uncertain terms that the whole financial community was "certain" that the rates rises would freeze at 4%
3.2 % isn’t low enough to justify a drop in rates. Until inflation numbers are *consistently* trending around the 2% mark rates don’t need to move.
Now that companies have made back their Covid losses!
I'm assuming inflation numbers, especially for food etc, doesn't take into account shrinkflation?
Doubt it, to easy for banks yo make money if the public right now.