RPI was initially produced in the United Kingdom as a compensation index, based on an index aimed to defend ordinary employees against rising prices related to World War I. Since 1947, the RPI has provided assessments of inflation, with the first formal release of consumer price inflation being in January 1956, when the RPI was established. RPI and its derivatives were the only measures of consumer price inflation available to users in the United Kingdom until the introduction of the UK CPI, which occurred in 1996. According to the National Statistician, Jil Matheson, in response to a survey on proposals for updating the Retail Prices Index (RPI), it was discovered that one of the formulae used to generate the RPI did not meet international standards and recommended that a new index be produced. Private households are included in the RPI; however, the top 4% of families by income and elderly households that receive at least three-quarters of their income from benefits are excluded from the survey.
A higher than expected figure should be seen as positive (bullish) for the GBP while a lower than expected figure should be seen as negative (bearish) for the GBP.
