UK Essentials Price Index!
Inflation measured by the everyday things we spend most of our money on, day in and day out!
Official inflation
Official inflation stats are great for economists, politicians and statistics guys. But not much good for anyone else. For most of the population, the vast majority of spending goes on rent, food, energy, water, and clothing.
These spending items are swamped by other items in the inflation rate, because the official inflation rate has to cover pretty much everything. That’s why official inflation is really helpful to professionals studying statistics, but not much help to the rest of us.
“Real” Inflation for Essentials
What I think we could do is drill down into the data and focus on specific spending areas, to get a better picture of what “real” inflation looks like to many ordinary people.
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This is annual inflation in the UK for these areas:
- Food — up by 1.3%
- Clothing — up by 0.2%
- Fuel (petrol/diesel) up by 23%
- Water — up by 7.3%
- Electricity — up by 2.5%
- Household Gas — up by 8.6%
- Rent — up by 4.2%
Most of these areas are up by more than the official rate of 3.3%.
Which is why most of us feel inflation is higher than the official stats say it us!
It also shows why so many people are struggling at the moment as wage rises are not keeping pace with the cost of essentials.
Sources:
August 26 Inflation Rate from ONS
Detailed Sector Inflation Rates taken from ONS Consumer Price Inflation Tables August 2026, published 16/09.
