London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 29, 2025

Inflation, gas prices, cost of living crisis and a plummeting pound - a look back at a tough 2022

Inflation, gas prices, cost of living crisis and a plummeting pound - a look back at a tough 2022

It has been an extraordinary year - which begs the question when we come to look at the defining charts of 2023, will they be quite as dramatic as these ones?

When looking back at the year gone by, it is rather hard to know where to start.

The death of a monarch, war in mainland Europe, the shortest running prime minister of all time. It has been an extraordinary 12 months of news, especially for the economy. Rather than running through the whole thing in narrative form, here are four of the biggest stories - along with the charts that help tell them.

1. The return of inflation

That 2022 was going to be a year with high inflation was hardly a surprise. It was clear from the middle of last year that prices were on the rise, and by the time the Bank of England began raising interest rates in December 2021, it already looked slightly behind the curve.



All the same, the leap in prices in 2022 was both dramatic and historic. You can see it for yourself in the chart of the period. By October, the consumer price index (CPI) was telling us that prices were rising at an annual rate of 11.1 per cent - the highest rate since 1981.

The striking thing about high inflation is how quickly it feeds into one's way of life. There is the big picture: the fact that we're all worse off, because our earnings aren't rising at the same rate. There's the impact it has on businesses, who are seeing their margins compressed and having to wrestle with how much of their cost increases to pass onto customers. And then there are the knock on consequences we're still living through.

One of those consequences is a sharp increase in industrial action. The funny thing, when you look at the shape of that CPI chart, is how similar those lines are to another data series - the one showing the frequency of industrial action in this country. The UK lost well over a million working days to strikes towards the end of 2022 (the final figure will be considerably higher, when it eventually gets published).


But when you overlay those two data series, you can see that given where CPI rose to and given the relationship between these two lines in the past, the number of strikes seems likely to head far higher.

The good news is that as the year ended, inflation seemed to have peaked. The question is what happens to energy bills and wider household costs in the coming months.

2. Gas prices


Speaking of energy bills, it's worth dwelling for a moment on the extraordinary increase in gas prices in 2022. We have simply never seen these prices rise this high - ever.


One thing worth noting is that the increases, from a relatively low and stable level back before 2020, long preceded the war in Ukraine. There is no doubt that the Russian invasion caused a sharp spike in prices, but this was far from the only thing pushing up these prices.

But we have all suffered the consequences. Not just in our energy bills - though that's the most obvious and painful impact - but everywhere else too. One thing we've all had to go back to basics and try to understand this year is the extent to which so many parts of our lives, so many products we all use, are made in part with gas, from the tomatoes you buy in the supermarket to the technology products you have in your pocket. Even a new car relies on gas to dry the paint being applied to it. For the time being, we still live in a fossil fuelled world, so for the time being, charts like this will have an enormous impact on our lives.

3. Real household disposable income


The upshot of those higher prices, however, is a severe hit to our living standards. Perhaps the clearest way to see this is to calculate the disposable income we all have after you've subtracted inflation and essential items from our income.


And on this front the news is not good. This chart, originally produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility first in March and then again in November, shows you how that real household disposable income has changed - and is forecast to change. And due in large part to the cost of living crisis, this measure of our living standards is due to shrink this year and next at the fastest rate ever. It's a chilling calculation, underlining something quite important.

While we have lived through more recessions in recent years than anyone cares to remember, this particular recession may prove more painful, and is likely to be felt more intimately in our pockets, than any of those preceding slumps. Such things matter.

4. The pound hits a record low


Finally, it would be remiss to offer an account of the year without referring to the drama of September and October, when Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng presided over a fiscal statement that precipitated an astounding collapse in the value of the pound.


In the days after the statement, sterling dropped sharply in value, eventually hitting a low of just above $1.03 vs the US dollar. This was the lowest level on record, lower even than the levels in 1985 which marked the previous nadir. In that case, the story was primarily about the dollar's strength - a phenomenon which so worried the US authorities that they staged a summit, the Plaza Accord, in an effort to bring it down against other leading currencies.

This time around, the story was slightly different. The dollar was undoubtedly strong in the preceding weeks, with economists expecting big increases in the main US interest rate, but the real story was about UK weakness. With consternation among UK investors about the course of policy under Truss and Kwarteng, the pound dropped not just against the dollar but against other currencies too. And after Truss was replaced with Rishi Sunak, it began to bounce back.

These are just small data-driven windows into an extraordinary year. But they raise a question: when we come to look at the defining charts of 2023, will they be quite as dramatic as these ones?

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
Lakestar to Halt External Fundraising as Investor in Revolut and Spotify
U.S. Innovation Ranking Under Scrutiny as China Leads Output Outputs but Ranks 10th
Three Men Arrested in London on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
Porsche Reverses EV Strategy as New CEO Bets on Petrol and Hybrids
Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns of ‘Messy’ Transition to Post-American Global Order
Andreessen Horowitz Sets Sights on Ten-Billion-Dollar Fund for Tech Surge
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
×