You posted a document that refers to the same root source I did, the Office of National Statistics for the UK. It’s right there, in the
executive summary.
The difference is the period of reference they used. February 2021 to September 2022; I used July 2022 to July 2023 (which are the most recent available numbers).
Also, I’m not able to find any inflation numbers specific to Scotland on
their own statistics website. Be my guest if you can find them; I want numbers from an official statistics office.
CPI is the index that takes into account food and energy.
I really argued on the core inflation number, while mentioning that CPI was indeed higher.
I said that inflation was at 6.4% from July 2022 to July 2023, CPI was at 6.8% for that same period.
It’s all a cycle, and we can both agree that the increase doesn’t occur once a year. It occurs much frequently, I would even say daily.
What we have is a snapshot looking at the preceding year. That’s what we have to work with, and salary increase - which occurs once a year.
But companies DO have impact on the purchasing power. They are all parts of the same economy, and they all will try to balance their revenues and expenses to make money - that includes salaries. At a very high level, as a factor among many others, if it costs them more, they will pass it on to their own customers, who will pass it on to theirs, and so on and until the end consumer. The consumer will then will need more money to buy the same good, so they will need a raise from their employer who will need to include it in their balance sheet, and the cycle perpetuates.
Then there is supply and demand, but that’s a completely different factor.
Inflation (and CPI) has so many factors, and every actor in the economy has an impact on it.