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Catalogue description Historic Retail Prices Index: 1947 to 2004 dataset
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| Reference: | RG 77/3 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Historic Retail Prices Index: 1947 to 2004 dataset |
| Description: | This dataset comprises an analysis of trends in inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) since 1947. This distinguishes it from the previous datasets in this series, which are snapshots of the RPI and the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). The RPI covers expenditure on the full range of consumer goods and services purchased by the majority of households in the United Kingdom, from the basics such as food, clothing and housing, through to leisure goods and services. The dataset contains an analysis of increases and decreases in household expenditure over time. For example, at the start of the period, food (and catering) represented the largest single category of expenditure, accounting for 35-40 per cent of the overall total. The RPI measures the full range of household expenditure, but it does not price everything that households spend their money on. Instead, a representative set of items is chosen, for which prices are tracked on a month by month basis. In 1947, there were around 200 of these representative items in the RPI basket of goods and services. Nowadays (ie 2006), there are over 650; the increased number reflects the growing complexity of the retail market and range of goods and services available, and improvements in the representativity of the items included in the basket. In 1947, the basket included many items which are not present in today's basket. The changes that have occurred reflect increasing affluence, evolving technology and changing tastes. Increasing prosperity and leisure time is also apparent with the increasing number of items in the household services, leisure goods and leisure services groups. Until 1962, the content of the RPI basket was generally held constant between rebasings but since then it has been updated in most years to reflect changing tastes in expenditure and to ensure adequate representation of each expenditure category. While the majority of the data is in the date range 1947-2004, the dataset contains one table of average prices of a range of foodstuffs and selected consumer goods from 1914 onwards. Unlike the remaining data, which contains averages arranged on a monthly basis, this table only contains annual figures. The tables were downloaded from the website of the Office for National Statistics website in the form of eight Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. From these files 42 tables were derived. |
| Date: | 1914-2004 |
| Held by: | The National Archives, Kew |
| Former reference in The National Archives: | CRDA/61/DS/3 |
| Legal status: | Public Record(s) |
| Closure status: | Open Document, Open Description |
| Access conditions: | Open on Transfer |
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