UK CPI inflation rate rises to 5.2% in September

[denphone]

The rate of Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation in the UK matched its record high in September, rising to 5.2% from 4.5% the month before and l don't think this is a surprise to many of us as disposable income increasingly keeps going down month by month with price rises in nearly everything we buy.

An increase in energy costs was behind a large proportion of the rise.




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15344297

[Kingofthedead4]

Yes its becoming more and more a struggle to make ends meet. I can understand people on Benefits and some pensioners who will be struggling to heat there homes this winter. And of course family's will also be struggling with Christmas coming up with trying to buy presents as well as pay the bills. I can see a lot more people getting into trouble with loans, credit cards and store cards as they are still being pushed on people every time you walk into a store or a bank.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Kingofthedead4

Yes its becoming more and more a struggle to make ends meet. I can understand people on Benefits and some pensioners who will be struggling to heat there homes this winter. And of course family's will also be struggling with Christmas coming up with trying to buy presents as well as pay the bills. I can see a lot more people getting into trouble with loans, credit cards and store cards as they are still being pushed on people every time you walk into a store or a bank.

Yes l agree and l find it absolutely shocking that financial institutions and Banks who are part of this economic crisis are still peddling their nefarious wares to the most vulnerable and financially non savvy members of society.

"Nefarious wares"???

Really?

[Kingofthedead4]

Yes, because if you have a small child and you walk into a shop and are offered £100 to spend there and then having to pay it back at £5 a month, most people will go ok. Then when you get your first bill you find out that each £5 you pay off costs you £3 in APR charges. My father who is 72 currently has £9000 of credit with a catalogue. Who in the right minds need £9000 of credit? Luckily he only uses about £100 at a time.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Hugh

"Nefarious wares"???

Really?

Perhaps Professor Hugh could serve up a better description of these banks.

Originally Posted by Hugh

"Nefarious wares"???

Really?

Yes. Like a skilful drug dealer, the loan-maker highlights the instant hit whilst obfuscating the long-term consequences. And he gets away with it because the way our society is built, from the ground up, requires us all to be in debt so we keep on working and consuming.

Frankly, it stinks.

Originally Posted by denphone

Perhaps Professor Hugh could serve up a better description of these banks.

I'm not the one using overly-emotive language from a Dickens novel.......

Originally Posted by Hugh

I'm not the one using overly-emotive language from a Dickens novel.......

Oddly enough, Dickens is widely recognised as one of the foremost social commentators of his age.

Originally Posted by Chris

Yes. Like a skilful drug dealer, the loan-maker highlights the instant hit whilst obfuscating the long-term consequences. And he gets away with it because the way our society is built, from the ground up, requires us all to be in debt so we keep on working and consuming.

Frankly, it stinks.

Erm, people have a choice - they don't need the latest phone, console, SuperDry clothing, etc.

They also have a responsibility that they don't spend more than they earn - call me old-fashioned, but borrowing money is a two way transaction; no one holds a gun to either party's head.....

---------- Post added at 10:23 ---------- Previous post was at 10:23 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

Oddly enough, Dickens is widely recognised as one of the foremost social commentators of his age.

Agreed - I always remember Mr Micawber's saying.....

My other piece of advice, Copperfield, said Mr. Micawber, you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the god of day goes down upon the dreary scene, andand, in short, you are for ever floored. As I am!

Originally Posted by Hugh

Erm, people have a choice - they don't need the latest phone, console, SuperDry clothing, etc.

They also have a responsibility that they don't spend more than they earn - call me old-fashioned, but borrowing money is a two way transaction; no one holds a gun to either party's head..

Yes and no.

Society is fundamentally built on consumer debt and not everybody has the wit or intelligence either to see what's happening or to know how to resist it.

People don't need the latest phone upgrade, but when every aspect of the culture they inhabit tells them that they do need it, it takes a level of self awareness, self discipline and, frankly, good education to take a step away from the cultural peer pressure and decline to do what it demands.

At the top of this frighteningly complex system is a tension created out of the fact that it was debt that got us into this mess, but debt is the only way anyone is prepared to contemplate as a way out. We are constantly told that the banks need to start lending. The Government tells them to lend. The BoE invents money and uses it to buy assets from financial institutions with the aim of putting money into their hands that they can then lend. The banks pay out obscene bonuses to those employees that are best at moving that money around - including, naturally, lending.

It would be wonderful if the whole country were populated with well-educated, highly financially literate families that understood the risks and rewards of our economic system and dealt with those risks and rewards accordingly. But it's not.

[Chrysalis]

Mervyn King is either incompetant or lieing out his teeth to justify keeping interest rates low.

How he can predict inflation to fall is beyond me. Especially when new cash injections are planned.

Also the basic cost of living is going up not just luxury goods, food, electric, gas, petrol, rents, water.

Tesco even managed to increase prices during a promotion.