Money’s too tight to mention

Rising prices have reduced the average household’s standard of living by £5 according to various news sources today. The data for January 2008 shows how rises in the prices of food, petrol, transport and household bills have affected real incomes.

An article in The Telegraph gives nominal pre-tax income growing by £22 per week, offset by a £27 increase in various spending costs.

According to the Press Association’s ,

The average household had just £138 a week left in January after meeting all their essential costs, such as food, clothes, housing, bills and transport, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (cebr).

Cebr said earnings were 3.8% higher in January than a year earlier, but taxation remained high, leading to a rise of just 2.6% in people’s take home pay. The amount paid in income tax and National Insurance rose by 7.8% during the year, which the group attributed to more people falling into the higher income tax bracket.

Will Alistair Darling respond to the final point (fiscal drag) by increasing income tax brackets by more than inflation in the upcoming budget? With the fiscal rules already in disarray, this is unlikely.

Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Evaluation on Supply-Side Policies [21 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Migration and the UK Economy [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Measuring Inflation in the UK [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Real Interest Rates [20 May 2012]
Q&A: What do we need to know about output gaps? [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Output Gap [20 May 2012]
Revision notes on unemployment [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Bank Cuts UK growth Forecast for 2012 [16 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of a Minimum Wage [12 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Poverty and Inequality and Market Failure [12 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Notes on Supply-side Policies [10 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Blogs on Markets and Intervention [10 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Model answer for revision data question [9 May 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: The Dawn of a Shareholder Spring? [8 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Monetary Policy and Inflation Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Aggregate Demand Glossary [5 May 2012]
Macro Revision - Key Statistics on the UK Economy [4 May 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Adecco and Monopsony Power [22 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Inflation and the Business Environment [6 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Real Economic Data [2 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Real Disposable Income [2 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Maximum Rents in Housing [1 Apr 2012]
Posen on slower growth in the UK compared to the USA [30 Mar 2012]
Life in the Slow Lane - UK Growth in 2011 Lags the Euro Area [28 Mar 2012]
Beyond the Bike - Monetary Policy in Africa [28 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Evaluating 3 Years of Quantitative Easing [27 Mar 2012]
Where does my money go? [20 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: The Tax on Beer [16 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Government launches New Buy Loan Guarantee Scheme [12 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Video Resources on the Euro Crisis [10 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Policies to Drive Economic Recovery [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Might Oil Prices Bring another Recession? [4 Mar 2012]
Economies hooked on central bank stimulants? [4 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Highest and Lowest Paid Jobs in the UK [26 Feb 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Low Pay in Supermarkets [24 Feb 2012]
10 Solutions to Binge Drinking [21 Feb 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: King on the UK Economy [15 Feb 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Public Goods [11 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Signs of Progress for Zimbabwe [29 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Inflation [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Can the UK Computer Games Industry Grow [24 Jan 2012]
France and Flexible Employment [22 Jan 2012]
Petrol, tax, and the downward sloping demand curve. [17 Jan 2012]
Inflation - what’s up, what’s down and what’s going to happen next [17 Jan 2012]
Unit1 Micro: Can a minimum wage create jobs? [16 Jan 2012]
Economics at the Movies - Freakonomics [9 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Quantitative Easing in the UK [8 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Housing Market in 2011 [26 Dec 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Empty Housing and Economic Efficiency [15 Dec 2011]
Rising prices and falling real incomes [13 Dec 2011]
Behavioural Economics: Herd Behaviour [28 Nov 2011]
Ten Things About Tax [23 Nov 2011]
Beyond the Bike - The Value of Money [19 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Time of Use Pricing for Energy [2 Nov 2011]
Australia lowers interest rate to 4.5% [1 Nov 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Should TNCs make full disclosure on factory wages? [30 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: UK Executive Pay - All in it Together? [29 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Drop Box and Freemium [18 Oct 2011]
Alcohol. Discuss! [18 Oct 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Unit Labour Costs and Inflation [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: UK Inflation Charts [12 Oct 2011]
University Challenged [11 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Monospony Power and Low Wages in Care Homes [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tube Drivers set to earn £50,000 a year [3 Oct 2011]
NMW: Classical real-wage unemployment [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: IMF Flags up Risks of Double Dip [20 Sep 2011]
Inflation in India [18 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Interest Rates and Income Inequality [16 Sep 2011]
Study Note - Macroeconomic policy objectives [16 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Growth and Inequality [14 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Income and Wealth in the UK [12 Sep 2011]
UK Macro: Risks of a Double Dip Recession [12 Sep 2011]
Starter Video: The Slums of Manilla [11 Sep 2011]
50% tax rates - Chuck it George [7 Sep 2011]
Monetary Policy Roundtable [25 Jul 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: FirstBuy, Affordability and Effective Demand in Property [10 Jul 2011]
AQA ECON4 Context [20 Jun 2011]
Chinese inward investment in the London property market [12 Jun 2011]
A2 Macro: Consumer Spending [30 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Supply-Side Policies [25 May 2011]
AQA Macro: Remember to revise inflation [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Demand Pull Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Deflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Cost Push Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Inflation [24 May 2011]
A2 Micro: High and Low Marginal Cost Products [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Ownership and Control in Modern Businesses [18 May 2011]
UK Economy Update: What Mervyn Said [11 May 2011]
Interest Rates Held at 0.5% once again [5 May 2011]
AS Macro: Extended House Price Deflation? [5 May 2011]
AS Micro: Rising Global Food Prices [2 May 2011]
Video Clips on the Chinese Economy [1 May 2011]
AS and A2 Macro Revision: Keynesian Economics [28 Apr 2011]
AS Micro: Importance of Elasticity of Supply [23 Apr 2011]
UK Economy at a Glance April 2011 [17 Apr 2011]

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