At CNS year 12 and 13 students are all involved in micro units. It is important not ignore macro topics as the way these problems are dealt eith in the economy will have an effect on the behaviour of firms and individuals.
One topic in the news this week has been CPI.
The Consumer Price [...]
The upcoming macroeconomics exam it is almost certainly going to test your ability to interpret data. Take a careful look at this hours old graph courtesy of the ONS and consider what has happened to prices in the first three months of 2009
In a previous posting on Improving data response skills I suggested a [...]
The latest price index figures released by the ONS make very interesting reading. I’m sure you remember that there is more than one way of measuring average prices, for example, the retail price index of consumer prices index.
Source: ONS
Using the RPI measure, we now have deflation in the UK for the first time since [...]
One of the government’s macroeconomic objectives is to ensure a low and stable rate of inflation, specifically, 2% +/- 1% as measured by the consumer prices index.
A cure first requires a diagnosis. There are two main causes of inflation:
Cost push inflation is caused by increasing prices of inputs eg wage rise, increased import price [...]
This blog is maintained mainly for the delight and pleasure of my students at Wood Green School Witney. Looking in class today at Interpreting the CPI one student suggested that we run a small competition to estimate the Feb 2009 value for the CPI.
I’m happy to oblige. I’m not going to nail my colours to [...]
Changes in the price level have an impact on the economy. Consider first the effects of sustained increase in the price level aka inflation.
Purchasing power is the amount of products a unit of currency, eg one pound, can buy. Inflation reduces the purchasing power of money. The value of money decreases as each pound [...]
After the theory of Measuring inflation time to get our hands dirty with a little data.
Economic students are expected to be aware of recent economic trends. Hopefully you have a feed reader to keep up-to-date as newspapers report and interpret key data releases such as the latest number of unemployed and the rate of inflation. [...]
Measuring inflation involves first constructing a price index. A price index is a method of establishing the average price of a group of defined products.
The initial index value of 100 in the base (first) year is the benchmark, or statistical yardstick, against which to measure subsequent changes. Eg a rise in the index over a [...]
This week we look at a very topical issue: inflation. Or should that now read deflation?
Any discussion of inflation involves the use of specialist terms for example:
The price level is the average market prices of a group of selected products. Each item in the basket of goods is weighted to reflect its relative importance to [...]
