The point of the post was to compare the rate of inflation in the UK with other similar countries in Western Europe who are also feeling the same effects of the war in Ukraine. What factors are unique to the UK that make our rate of inflation so much worse than other countries in Western Europe? My take is;
- Brexit - higher import costs in UK for goods from EU than for EU countries
- Higher energy costs have been passed on to consumer, the UK government has not intervened in the market (like many other governments) and energy companies are generally foreign owned. The government could do something about this but would prefer large profits to go to the energy companies.
- Higher energy costs can also create the sort of inflationary spiral that you want to pin on wage growth because it effects every area of life including almost all economic activity.
Wage inflation, which you would like to blame as it fits in with the narrative that Marxist union leaders are causing inflation, is running at between 5% and 6% which is well below the rate of inflation (see report below about ONS figures).
Employment increased in January as younger employees returned to workplace, says ONS
www.theguardian.com
Yea the point of the post is self explanatory but you feel you had to explain a post about a list of inflation rates in European countries for some reason.
(The point of the thread about Putin is to critique his actions and to discuss the instability and to consider the consequences to world peace. I could go on. It’s a good job you’re here to state the obvious. )
Such lists are indicative but they’re snapshots. The inflation rates as of now are not as they were or as they will be. Countries will move up and down the list. So any conclusions you draw along with the moaning of others, need to be seen in context, and seen for what it is - anti government biased rhetoric.
One person has commented to say 9.9% of the inflation is the Government’s fault.
The inflation rate lists countries of which many are not similar to the UK.
There’s not much similar between the Spanish and UK economies yet Spain is listed as if they’re a country with an economy to envy due to their their lower inflation rate.
Having them on there is a distortion.
We really only need to look to Germany and France. In doing so we see our inflation rate is indeed a few percentage points higher.
You say I want to pin inflation on wage growth but you must have a very short attention span. I said inflation is caused by various factors and I’ve actually specified energy being one of these factors. So please don’t twist my words or misrepresent me for your own biased agenda. Judge me on my actual words, rather than your fabrications.
You say the government hasn’t intervened with the energy market. Well in fact yes they have. They have set a price cap. They’ve given energy support to businesses and individuals. Support you’ll have gratefully banked on the quiet. But if you want to pass your rebate onto someone more needy then please do so.
The government racked up billions paying to support businesses and individuals through covid. They went further than other countries on the above list. They pumped money into the system and it’s a well known consequence that quantitative easing causes higher inflation.
Brexit will be having some impact on supply chains in addition to the supply chain pressures caused by covid.
So yeah our inflation is slightly higher than in Germany right now but that’s todays position. It’s two percent higher and about four percent higher than France.
It’s economic stupidity to have a self-inflicted wage inflation spiral. That would have happened if the government hadn’t been resisting the ridiculous demands of various unions. Thankfully we are starting to see some sensible pay deals reached. The militant outliers can carry on asking for 35%. Well if they had their way we’d probably end up with 20% inflation and then you’d have something real to moan about - even though I suspect it would have been like a turkey voting for Christmas.
