Petrol/diesel is at an all-time high. Everyone is feeling the pinch from this. It affects all of our lives. The wholesale prices of goods goes up as it costs more to get them from the manufacturers/producers to the retail outlets. Taxi and bus fares will rise, if they haven't already.
Mortgage rates are rising. The deals that were around at Christmas just aren't there anymore. Prices are beginning to fall. Anyone coming to the end of a mortgage deal is going to find the new monthly payment a shock, if they can find anyone prepared to offer them a mortgage at all. If your house has dropped in value since you took out your last deal you will struggle to find another lender willing to offer you a big enough mortgage to cover what you owe. And don't get me started on Council Tax!
Today we are warned that gas and electricity prices could rise by 40% this winter. No, not £40, 40%. If your yearly bills come to £1000 now, you could find they rise to £1400 by this time next year! On top of all the other financial squeezes above a lot of people are going to suffer.
Pensioners are on a low fixed income. Where are they going to find that sort of money? The same goes for those on the various Carers/Disabled allowances. Even those of us who have, until the last few months, been ok are going to find it hard.
As people start spending less in the shops, then some shops and businesses are going to fail. Their employees will lose their jobs, adding to the numbers of those who have to decide whether to have a hot meal or enough hot water for a wash!
I've been complaining to friends for a while that in the last 5 years my food bill has doubled. The contents of my trolley haven't changed that much. Yet the government would have us believe that inflation has been below 2.5%! So I've been investigating where it gets its figures from.
The Office of National Statistics publishes the Retail Price Index (RPI) each month. There are different versions of the RPI depending on whether you want mortgage interest payments and/or indirect taxation such as that on fuel/cigarettes/alcohol etc. The relevant link is
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=21 or to find out what is included and why go to http://www.statistics.gov.uk/elmr/04_07/downloads/ELMR_April07_Wingfield.pdf
I don't have time to read it and give you the summary today. I'll come back to it soon.
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