Increase in household spending
January 10, 2009 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
Figures from a recently released report have shown that household spending levels have increased enormously over the past five years in order to cope with rising household bills and living costs. The figures were released some weeks ago by the Office for National Statistics, and showed that the average weekly household spend had gone up by around 13 percent in the past five years.
Figures from the Family Spending Survey suggested that the average weekly spend per household was now close to £460 per week, which had increased from just over £406 five years ago. Rising costs such as gas and electricity bills, water rates, council tax rates, mortgage repayments, petrol costs, and food prices have all rocketed over the past couple of years.
It is hoped by many consumers and officials that the situation for many households will improve as a result of interest rates having plummeted to just 2 percent after rocketing to 5.75 percent over the past couple of years. However, this will depend upon how reliable the banks are in passing on the rate cuts, as there are fears that some may not even benefit from the base rate cut.
Inflation also rocketed earlier this year, with things such as food prices, petrol prices, and energy usage costs having soared. Food and petrol prices have now started to come down again, although energy prices are still high. A number of energy firms have stated, however, that there could be a drop in the cost of energy usage in the early part of next year.
