Retail Prices Index (RPI) and Consumer Prices Index (CPI) dataset contains information relevant to those two economic measures. Consumer Price indices measure the change in the general level of prices charged for goods and services bought for the purpose of consumption in the UK. The CPI and the RPI are the two main measures of inflation. The indices represent the average change in prices across a wide range of consumer purchases. This is achieved by carefully recording the prices of a typical selection of products from month to month, using a large sample of shops and other outlets throughout the UK. Although the two indices are similar, there are some areas where the CPI differs significantly.
The datasets held comprise:
- Retail Prices Index snapshot 1987-2003. Described on transfer as 'recent' RPI data. The RPI dataset generally goes back to 1987; although some of the data (e.g. on pensioner indices) may go back to an earlier date.
- Consumer Prices Index snapshot 1988-2003. This generally only goes back to 1996, although some earlier data going back to 1988 has been reconstructed from available data.
- Historic Retail Prices Index 1947-2004. This is an analysis of trends in inflation since 1947, as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI). It contains some data from 1914.
The datasets in this series are available to download. Links to individual datasets can be found at piece level.