MNI BRIEF: UK ONS Eye New Index As Measure Of Household Costs

How items are purchased rather than purely their cost is becoming a keen interest for statisticians looking at inflation data, the Office for National Statistics said in a blog article posted Tuesday, explaining the potential benefits of Household Cost Indexes over the currently used prices indexes. The article looks at HCIs which take a greater note of the monthly cost of an item on overall budgets.

For example, the blog points to student loans, currently recorded in CPI for example as a one-off total figure. However, must students pay this over an extended period via a student loan, the ONS note, so a change in the monthly repayments will have a bigger impact on household finances than a change in the underlying fees, which HCIs will aim to capture.

There is no immediate plan for introduction, with the ONS hoping HCIs can be introduced as a quarterly reading by end-2023 and badged a full National Statistic by the beginning of 2025