Snapshot of Eurozone inflation falls to 5.5% in sharp contrast to UK. Economists put reason for divergence down to Brexit and Britain’s energy price guarantee.

    • noodle@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      The government can only pretend external factors are entirely to blame for so long. As more and more evidence like this continues to pile up, it will become politically untenable. Eventually it’ll just be the maddest of the mad still in the Brexit camp and the less devoted Brexiteers will want to disassociate.

      • emerty@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        Did you even read the article?

        Economists said most of the reason for the divergence between the UK and the EU was down to the UK government’s energy price guarantee (EPG), which has capped the cost of gas and electricity bills to the equivalent of £2,500 a year for a typical household until July. In the eurozone there have not been similar caps fixing the price over a lengthy time period, meaning their inflation rates better reflect the recent global decline in wholesale gas and electricity prices.

    • emerty@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Did Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden brexit as well?

      Edit. Why is it ok to compare UK to average of the Eurozone but not to the countries with high inflation? Double standards methinks

      • sunbeam60
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        1 year ago

        Literally the first paragraph says “economists put it down to brexit”. But I’m sure you had enough of experts.

        • emerty@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          and Britain’s energy price guarantee

          And you’re ignoring the second half of the first paragraph?

          Why?

          • sunbeam60
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            1 year ago

            Not ignoring it. Of course there are other factors. But brexit is definitely a factor. Therefore: Brexit, the gift that keeps on giving.

            • emerty@feddit.uk
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              1 year ago

              I work in agtech, brexit is a gift, it’s caused disruption that’s a great catalyst for investment in regenerative and vertical farming

              Problems are opportunities

              Wage growth is also high as a result of the labour squeeze that brexit is partially affecting

              • G4Z@feddit.uk
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                1 year ago

                That seems suitably vague.

                be specific, what can you do now that you couldn’t have done in the EU and why has that caused more investment that wouldn’t have happened anyway?

                • emerty@feddit.uk
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                  1 year ago

                  The CAP is an environmental disaster. The UK has now created its own agriculture policy that does not subsidise production. This was not possible whilst in the EU.

                  • G4Z@feddit.uk
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                    1 year ago

                    So I suppose what you are saying is, now that the cost of food production has increased that’s made investments in these things more viable? Kind of sounds like some significant downsides for the other part of that equation. Not quite a Brexit benefit for the rest of us, just those in a specific VC funded R+D company.

                    I also think… those investments could have still happened in the EU tbh, could and maybe should have been government funded research anyway, considering there is at least one large vertical farm company in Germany.

                    Not really buying that as a benefit myself, but at least it is arguable!

              • sunbeam60
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                1 year ago

                I’m happy to hear of a positive side effect of brexit. I’m not going to lie, I think it’s the first.

            • emerty@feddit.uk
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              Economists said most of the reason for the divergence between the UK and the EU was down to the UK government’s energy price guarantee (EPG), which has capped the cost of gas and electricity bills to the equivalent of £2,500 a year for a typical household until July. In the eurozone there have not been similar caps fixing the price over a lengthy time period, meaning their inflation rates better reflect the recent global decline in wholesale gas and electricity prices.

        • TWeaK@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          Nevermind cherry picking 3 countries from the EU.

          Also we’re comparing statistics from two different organisations. The ONS was significantly defunded early on in the Tory government’s rule under David Cameron, while other departments forming the checks and balances against Westminster were completely closed down - the clear message being that if the ONS didn’t step into line with the government’s narrative then their jobs would be next.

          Meanwhile Eurostat exists to compare data between all EU countries, yet here we only see 3.

          • emerty@feddit.uk
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            1 year ago

            That’s a conspiracy theory. Show me one respected statistician that casts any doubt on the ONS’ output

            They are the 3 European countries with high inflation, I’m guessing you don’t know the reasons why? Hint, energy price caps and their implementation.

            • TWeaK@feddit.uk
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              1 year ago

              It’s not a theory to say that the ONS was defunded in the early 2010’s and stopped tracking various metrics.

              They are 3 European countries with high inflation, sure, but they’re not 3 EU countries that the UK is regularly compared with. They have been cherry picked for this graph.

              And furthermore as far as I can tell Eurostat don’t do a CPI measurement that excludes energy, food, alcohol & tobacco. Which begs the question: why don’t they present the actual data they used to make the graph?

              The simple truth is that the UK lost its direct comparison to EU countries when we left in 2019. Which, incidentally, is just before the start of this graph.

              • emerty@feddit.uk
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                1 year ago

                Any changes to ONS methodology is published openly. Again, source please.

                Core inflation excludes volatilities, that’s literally the definition

                And why not compare countries with high inflation?

          • HelloThere@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            The intended use of core inflation is when the base assumption holds true, that assumption being demand for food and energy will not reduce as price increases.

            That assumption has not held, we’ve seen a reduction in demand for both as budgets have been squeezed to breaking point, even with the price caps.

        • emerty@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          Neither is the UK… The problem with being in the eurozone is that member states have no central bank. Spain, for example, is unable to reduce interest rates despite their CPI being under the ECB target of 2% and unemployment over 13%

          Instead, the ECB will probably be hiking rates more to quell inflation in other member states.

          • sunbeam60
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            1 year ago

            This is a weird argument. The US, undoubtedly the world’s strongest economy, has a single central bank covering the Deep South and the coasts, which are also running at two different speeds. The job of Spain is to run a decent economy with no deficit, something they continually fail to do. Sure you can blame it on lack of central bank, but they’ve got other tools available for them as well.

            • emerty@feddit.uk
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              1 year ago

              So because the US has terribly performing states, that somehow justifies not being able to set your own monetary policy? That’s a weird argument.

              Maybe the reason Spain and all the other Southern European countries that struggle to run a decent economy is because the euro is set up to benefit the biggest manufacturers…

              • sunbeam60
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                Oh don’t worry they were struggling to do well before the euro. You could argue that being a euro member saved some of them during the crash.

                • emerty@feddit.uk
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                  1 year ago

                  No doubt. European austerity made it worse though post GFC. The US and China used a shed load more fiscal stimulus than the EU, and have added trillions of extra GDP as a result.

        • emerty@feddit.uk
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          Lol, I didn’t invent the definition of core inflation mate. Take it up with the economists