The basket of goods reflects the most commonly bought goods in an economy. When calculating inflation, statisticians check these 1,000 most commonly bought goods and multiplier price changes by their respective weighting. There is an interesting interactive graph here at the NYT showing the different components of the US basket of goods, used to calculate …
Readers Question Why is the forward guidance threshold set at 7% unemployment and how does this affect the threshold for inflation? The MPC have a remit to target inflation of CPI = 2% +/-1. But, the MPC also consider wider issues of economic growth and unemployment. UK Real GDP is still lower than the level …
Irish national debt – the total amount of Irish government debt. Irish national debt has increased to 117% of GDP in recent years because of a large financial bailout to Irish banks, deep recession which saw a 20% drop in nominal tax revenues, and continued weakness in GDP growth which has made it difficult to …
Stats on EU Bond Yields and Debt. See also: Primary budget Deficits of EU EU Bond yields 2010 – 2012 ECB Long term Interest rates EU Bond Yields 2010 – 2014 2010-2012 – Why did Bond yields on Eurozone debt rise, but yields on UK debt fall? One significant cause is that the ECB won’t …
Just five years after the start of global credit crunch and the UK housing crash, it seems incongruous to be talking about another UK property bubble. It is a paradox that the UK has experienced five long years of recession – the worst decline in living standards in recent times, and yet, property prices still …
An interesting question at the moment is to what extent does temporary cost-push factors lead to a permanent rise in underlying inflation? Temporary cost-push factors include rising commodity prices, rising food prices, higher taxes. These goods are often volatile so the increase is often temporary. In the case of taxes, the price increases last for …
Who is your ‘favourite’ economist, why? It may not be very original, but I would choose the man himself. John M. Keynes. Why? This is more interesting. Keynes was very practical. He saw a real crisis – the great depression, and he sought an effective solution. In looking for solutions he was willing to think …
Readers question: Would Independent Scotland be better with the Pound, Euro or an independent currency? What are the risks for each scenario? Scotland using the Euro If Scotland use the Euro there will be some benefits from having a shared currency with the rest of the Eurozone. Scottish business and personal users will have lower …