Real national and household incomes have been falling due to a
combination of the recession and high inflation. That is the
analysis published today by the Office for National Statistics
(ONS) as part of the Measuring National Well-being Programme.
The data describes an economy that has been stagnating: • In the
second quarter of 2012 net national income (NNI) per head in
real terms was 13.2 per cent below its pre-recession level in
the first quarter of 2008; a sharper fall in economic well-being
than the 7.0 per cent fall that GDP per head data indicate. • In
the second quarter of 2012, real household actual income per
head was 2.9 per cent below its peak in the third quarter of
2009 • Household incomes have generally been eroded by price
inflation, for example in September 2011 inflation peaked at 5.2
per cent whereas the annual rise in household actual income per
head was 1.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2011 • At the end
of 2011 national debt was in excess of one trillion pounds, the
first time on rec