| Welcome to our round-up of the latest statistics and analysis on the economy. Household Cost Indices (HCIs) news Weve published the latest quarterly Household Cost Indices for UK household groups for October 2023 to December 2023. HCIs provide estimates of inflation rates experienced by different types of household in the UK. Our initial estimates show that, overall, UK household costs rose 5.0% in the year to December 2023, down from 8.3% in September 2023. Those groups who spent a higher proportion of their basket on mortgage interest payments, or a lower proportion of their basket on electricity, gas and other fuels where prices were falling, saw higher annual inflation rates in December 2023. This included mortgagor households (6.3%), high-income households (5.6%), non-retired households (5.4%) and households with children (5.5%). Today we have also released an article examining the role of owner occupiers' housing costs in our HCIs. The contribution of housing costs has become increasingly significant, overtaking food and energy as a leading driver of the annual increase in the HCIs, as rents and mortgage interest payments increased over the last two years. One feature of the HCIs is that they provide more insight into some of the distributional effects of these higher costs and prices. We find that housing tenure status explains much of the difference in the contribution of mortgage interest payments to the annual increase in costs for retired and non-retired households, for households with and without children, and for households by different income deciles. How we measure Household Cost Indices There are different measures and approaches to inflation in the UK. HCIs are experimental statistics that examine how different households experience changes in costs. This is done by looking at the payments they make for a basket of goods, services, and other financial transactions. Read about our different approaches for measuring changing prices and costs for consumers and households. You can also use our inflation calculator to see how increases in the cost of living have affected you in the past year. Webinar on Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) Over the last two years we've been transforming the collection, methods and processes that go into producing our BERD statistics to ensure we can provide robust and detailed measures of R&D activity. Tomorrow (27 February 2024), we will be releasing new BERD statistics. Were also hosting a webinar at 11am to explain the release, giving users a chance to hear firsthand about these exciting changes, as well as the data headlines and additional insight including sector analysis. | 