Should Historic Deflation In Britain Be A Concern?

Could deflation be the next big road block on the road to economic recovery? News out of Britain indicates that significant deflation has hit Britain's economy which can lead to things getting worse rather than better. What does the lowest Retail Price Index since they started keeping records mean for Britain's economy? Tim Iacono from the blog The Mess That Greenspan Made, shares his view on the significance of record deflation in Britain.

The British have succumbed to the scourge of deflation and about all the rest of the world can do now is bid them a fond farewell - they've entered the abyss, as reported by the Telegraph.

Britain sinks into deepest deflation since 1948
The British economy sank deeper into deflation last month to the lowest level in more than 60 years as the effect of falling house prices and lower mortgage repayments escalated.

Inflation on the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure, which includes housing costs, dropped sharply to -1.2pc in the year to April, from -0.4pc in March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Tuesday.

It was the lowest RPI figure since records began in 1948, and weaker than economists had expected.

The number of times that economists have been taken by surprise over the last few years has been increasing at such an astonishing rate that, sometimes, you have to stop and wonder why we even keep them around.

Maybe we'd be better off with no forecasts and no expectations for the future at all.

More importantly, you have to wonder why their counsel continues to be sought in order to remedy the ills that took them by such great surprise.

Anyway, on the subject of de-flation, the British method of measuring the changes to consumer prices appears to be even more dysfunctional than the one used in the U.S. as central bank lending rates have a direct impact on their broadest measure of inflation which happens to include interest paid via mortgage payments.

So, all other things being equal, if interest rates are slashed, inflation goes down, whereas, if the bank hikes lending rates, inflation goes up.

The main driver of the fall was lower mortgage interest payments following the Bank of England's decision to cut interest rates by half a percentage point to 0.5pc in March, the ONS said.
...
Although in the short term falling prices will appeal to consumers, RPI is used to calculate wage increases so the sharp fall in April is likely to add to downward pressure on salaries already caused by higher unemployment and falling corporate profits.
"As a result, many workers are likely to get wage freezes or even pay cuts," said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight.

Deflation poses a further threat to the economy if people expect prices to fall further and put purchasing plans on hold which can, if the trend persists, lead to lower output and even more job losses.

There's the real evil of inflation - right there in that last paragraph...

If people see negative numbers showing up in the government's measure of inflation, they'll stop obsessing about the ongoing financial market meltdown and how it must ultimately lead to the end of life as we've known it and promptly cut back on their already sharply curtailed spending plans in hopes of getting a better deal sometime in the months ahead.

This post can also be viewed on themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com.