NIESR’s economic forecasts are almost dystopian – they demand action from government

Dire predictions throw a harsh spotlight on RPI inflation, which the ONS calls a bad measure and which could hit 18 per cent, writes James Moore

Inflation is rocketing and we’ve yet to see the worst (AFP/Getty)

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has been getting a lot of attention with its latest missive because it is an A-list think tank and its latest predictions are dystopian indeed.

We’re not quite talking the Hunger Games here, but hunger is appropriate given the number of households without savings is “set to double to 5.3 million by 2024”. This means at least 2.6 million of them are going to see what little they have set aside to get them through the current crisis wiped out before its end.

There’s more: average real household disposable incomes are, NIESR warns, set to fall by 2.5 per cent in 2022 and will remain more than 7 per cent below the pre-Covid trend beyond 2026.