RPDI pointing south
March 25th, 2011If there is one single indicator illustrating the political health as well as the economic health of a government, it is RPDI (real personal disposable income). Year on year that tracks changes in the value of household income after taking account of inflation. For 20 years till 2005 it rose continually until the rise seemed unstoppable. Since 2005 however it has been very slightly falling each year. In 2011 RPDI is about to fall very sharply, and even if recovery gets under way in 2013 ( a very big if) families on average in the UK will be no better off in real terms by 2015 than they were 10 years before. For most families money-wise this is a wasted decade in which the nadir is about to hit them hard, far harder than most families yet realise. No government has survived an income collapse on such a scale. (more…)
