Consumers better barometer of inflation than statistics

Spenders maybe “a better barometer of inflation” than statistics from the government’s Office for National Statistics claim financial experts.

Findings from research conducted among Fool.co.uk’s readers reveals that many believe inflation to be between six and seven per cent rather than the two per cent stated by the government.

David Kuo, head of personal finance at Fool.co.uk, said: “We are slowly beginning to see that these inflation figures are slowly beginning to feed through.”

He added that although at the moment interest rates are seen to be coming down because the Bank of England is very worried about a recession, “we do honestly believe that there is inflation within the economy”.

This time last year, the BBC reported that inflation was at an 11 – year high as higher fuel costs helped to push up the consumer price index (CPI) to 2.7 per cent in November.

On January 10th, the Bank of England voted to maintain the Bank’s rate at 5.5 per cent, having cut the rate by 0.25 per cent back in December.

Tags: fuel costs, government, inflation, bbc, head, research, Fool.co.uk's readers, cent