§ Lord Jacobsasked Her Majesty's Government:
What would be the retail prices index (to two decimal places) excluding mortgage interest payments (RPIX) in December 2000, December 2001 and May 2002 if the depreciation of owner-occupied houses, which has been a component of the index since 1995, were to be excluded from 1 January 2000; and how this compares with the RPIX of the relevant months. [HL4877]
§ Lord McIntosh of HaringeyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from the National Statistician, Len Cook, dated 1 July 2002.
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question on the Retail Prices Index (RPI). Your question asks what the all items RPI excluding mortgage interest payments (RPIX) would be in December 2000. December 2001 and May 2002 to two decimal places if the depreciation component were excluded and how this compares with RPIX of the relevant months. [HL4877]
The table below compares index levels for RPIX and RPIX, excluding the depreciation component, for each of the months in question. These indices are shown to one decimal place, the level of accuracy we deem to be of publishable quality.
Selected RPI indices, Jan 1987=100 Month RPIX RPIX excluding depreciation December 2000 169.3 167.7 December 2001 172.5 170.5 May 2002 175.2 173.0 You might like to note for future reference that these figures are published each month in table 2 of the Consumer Price Indices First Release and on the National Statistics website www.statistics.gov.uk.