Retail Price Index in the UK 1987-2021

The Retail Price Index (RPI) is one of the main measures of inflation used to calculate the change in the price of goods and services within the British economy. In the latest month in this statistic the index value was 304, indicating that the price for a fixed basket of goods had increased by more than 200 percent since 1987.

RPI inflation rate expected to remain low into 2021

In August 2020, the RPI inflation rate was just 0.5 percent, the lowest that the rate had been in more than ten years. This slow growth in prices is expected to continue into 2021, with the inflation rate forecast to be 1.4 percent, a far lower figure than in 2017, when the RPI inflation rate was 3.6 percent. In fact, the inflation rate is not expected to rise above two percent until 2023, when it is predicted to be 2.6 percent.

Widely used but not official

While the retail price index is still seen as a useful indicator, it is not presented as the main inflation measure, with the use of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) encouraged by the Office of National Statistics instead. The basket of goods which are used to calculate this measure constantly changes, with recent additions being smart-speakers, as well as bakeware to reflect changing tastes and priorities for consumers.