The future of the UK economy continues to look brighter, pessimistic consumers are still holding back but confidence is definitely growing.
We have more encouraging news today, the UK inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) fell to 1.6% in March from 1.7% in February, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The inflation target set by the Bank of England is 2%, so it is tracking well at the moment, and at its lowest since October 2009.
The fall in inflation can be largely attributed to the fall in petrol prices; fuel prices remained static between February and March this year. Last year fuel prices increased 2.2p a litre for the same time period.
Average total earnings, including bonuses, rose a healthy 1.4% in the three months to January compared with last year, according to ONS figures released last month. Excluding bonuses, wages grew by 1.3%.
A rise in average salaries and a drop in inflation rate means that the gap between average wage growth and the rise in prices has continued to narrow. And, there is even more good news; this week, economic forecasting group the EY ITEM Club predicted average earnings could rise faster than the cost of living as early as this month.
Malcolm Ford has had 25 years’ experience in different industries and currently implements enterprise level software to increase efficiency in small to medium sized businesses.
