Blog : Proprietary indices

Falling Business Price Inflation means CPI will follow

On 23/03/2010, by Erik Britton. Keywords: Proprietary indices

According to the latest reading on the London Chamber BPI, UK business cost inflation was -0.5 per cent in the year to February. The figure for the London region was also -0.5 per cent.

Falling business costs are a forward-looking indicator of weak consumer price inflation to come. For a period, firms will benefit from falling costs by rebuilding their profit margins. But that cannot last forever – eventually, competition will force them to bring the growth in their prices into line with the growth in their costs. We see that story playing out over the coming year or two, with low costs bringing down consumer price inflation gradually to the target of 2 per cent, and below.

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Auction prices close to 30%

On 10/03/2010, by Andrew Brigden. Keywords: Auction Price Index, Proprietary indices

There was a substantial increase in the discount available on properties sold at auction January. January is a quiet month for property auctions, and so the latest reading might be treated with some caution, nevertheless the near 30% discount is a long way above its historic average, and not far off the lows of December 2008. It suggests a significant relapse in prices achieved at auction since late 2009, and adds to survey evidence that the balance of power between buyers and sellers in the conventional market has begun to shift.

For read more about the latest update of our Auction Price Index, go to:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages-and-homes/house-prices/article.html?in_article_id=499490&in_page_id=57

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