United Kingdom Retail Price Index

In the UK, the RPI was initially developed as a compensation index, derived from an index designed as an aid to protect ordinary workers from price increases associated with the First World War. The RPI provides estimates of inflation from 1947 onwards with the first official release of consumer price inflation being produced in January 1956. Until the introduction of the UK CPI in 1996, the RPI and its derivatives, were the only measures of UK consumer price inflation available to users. Following a consultation on options for improving the Retail Prices Index (RPI), the National Statistician, Jil Matheson, concluded that one of the formulae used to produce the RPI does not meet international standards and recommended that a new index be published. The RPI covers only private households but excludes the top 4% of households by income and pensioner households who receive at least three-quarters of their income from benefits.