Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators: 22 September 2022

• Of trading businesses, 44% reported an increase in the prices of goods or services bought in August 2022 compared with July 2022, this was down from the 46% who reported increases between June and July 2022; in comparison, the percentage of businesses who reported an increase in the prices of goods or services sold was 20%, a slight fall from 23% in July 2022 (final results from Wave 65 of the Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS)).

• The System Average Price (SAP) of gas increased by 13% in the week to 18 September 2022, it is now 106% higher than the equivalent level seen on 19 September 2021 (National Grid).

• Business and workforce indicators showed a mixed picture this week, although total online job adverts increased 2% from the previous week, they are now 12% lower than the equivalent week of 2021 having exhibited a downward trend since the highest point this year in mid-February; meanwhile, company incorporations are 3% lower than the equivalent week of 2021, but 16% higher than the equivalent week of 2019 (Adzuna, Companies House).

• Consumer behaviour indicators mostly showed stability or small changes in the latest week, with visits to "retail and recreation" and "grocery and pharmacy" remaining broadly unchanged, meanwhile, there was a slight decrease in UK credit and debit purchases of 3 percentage points (Google Mobility, Bank of England CHAPS data).

• Transport indicators were mostly stable this week with UK daily flights and the seasonally adjusted average count of traffic camera activity for cars in London remaining broadly unchanged from the previous week (EUROCONTROL, Transport for London).

• Road traffic on 19 September 2022 was down 45 percentage points from the previous Monday, this large week-on-week fall in road traffic was driven by falls in activity owing to the bank holiday for the State Funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Department for Transport).

Notes:

1. Data for the number of shipping visits for the UK is unavailable this week because of technical issues, but data for most ports are still available in our accompanying dataset.

2. Revolut adjustments to user count are at an aggregate level and as such, age bands may not adjust evenly.

3. Users should note that card spending over time is pushed upwards by the impacts of both inflation on value of transactions, and cash-to-card conversion.

4. Users should note that the week-on-week and year-on-year changes in automotive fuel price and demand indicators are the point differences of the indexed numbers, so may not match the percentage levels provided in the commentary.

5. The large week-on-week fall in road traffic was driven by falls in activity due to the bank holiday for the State Funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Users should note that this section lists a selection of the data available with this publication. For the full list of available datasets please see our accompanying dataset page.

Real-time indicator

A real-time indicator provides insights into economic activity using close-to-real-time big data, administrative data sources, rapid response surveys or Experimental Statistics, which represent useful economic and social concepts.  

Information on the methodology used to produce the indicators in this bulletin is available in the Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators methodology.

These statistics have been produced to provide timely indicators of the effect of developing world events on the UK economy and society, using close-to-real-time big data, administrative data sources, rapid response surveys or Experimental Statistics.

The data presented in this bulletin are reviewed and refreshed on a regular basis. Indicators are swapped in and out of the publication based on their suitability and availability.

UK coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions

A full overview of coronavirus restrictions for each of the four UK constituent countries can be found:

• coronavirus in England

• coronavirus in Scotland

• coronavirus in Wales

• coronavirus in Northern Ireland

These restrictions should be considered when interpreting the data featured throughout this bulletin.

Seasonality

Seasonal fluctuations are likely to be present in many of these indicators so caution must be applied when interpreting changes in series that are not seasonally adjusted.