This government and The Office for National Statistics are at it again.
| The Office of National Statistics report shows 2.7 per cent rise in annual inflation during October |
On the 16th October last,
I wrote a piece on this Blog following the announcement that,
according to the Office for National Statistics, inflation had
fallen to a three year low. Essentially, I was a little sceptical of
the figure and the way in which the euphoria of the press and media
immediately leaped onto the band wagon of announcing that the worst
of the economic crisis had passed and the “green shoots” of
recovery were plain to see. The reasons for my scepticism were that
the announcement of the new lower figure came just days after the
energy companies had started their usual round of winter price hikes,
and the fact that the lower rate announced in October but using the
September figure, is the one against which State Pension increases
and State Benefit levels are calculated for the following year.
Now, less than 30 days
later, the Office for National Statistics, announce that the UK's
inflation rate rose sharply in October. Now I think that I might be
excused for believing that someone, somewhere is telling porkies. Add
this to the latest pearls wisdom from the governor of the Bank of
England Sir Mervyn King, who has today downgraded the growth forecast
for the UK economy for next year to around 1% blaming a worse than
predicted impact from the financial crisis. You may well recall his
bullish forecast made only a few short weeks ago which was
immediately sized upon by the media and Tory government as proof
positive that the economic programme of this ConDem Coalition was on
track and all was well.
The latest round of
statistics and of Bank of England forecasts leave me in little doubt
that we have a long way to go. Sir Mervyn King has also said today
that the country should be prepared for a TRIPLE dip recession.
Successive governments have resorted to manufacturing statistics in
order to suit a particular policy or programme at any given time, but
it seems that over the past few years, the science of statistical
manipulation has been advanced to a whole new level.
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