RPI inflation, 1999 to August 2026
£1,000 in 1999 is £2,549 today
That £1,000 bought 515 pints of lager in 1999. Today it buys 192.
Prices up 155%3.5% a year on averageMultiply by 2.55
What £1,000 buys
Official average shop prices, not a basket. Things marked as outrunning inflation got dearer faster than everything else; things that lagged got relatively cheaper.
| Item | 1999 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| pints of lager£1.94 then, about £5.20 today | 515 | 192 |
| first-class stampsoutran inflation25p then, £1.80 today | 4,000 | 556 |
| kg of bananaslagged inflation£1.04 then, about £1.10 today | 962 | 911 |
| packs of 20 cigarettesoutran inflation£3.58 then, about £17.87 today | 279 | 56 |
| dozen eggslagged inflation£1.38 then, about £2.39 today | 725 | 419 |
| boxes of tea bagslagged inflation£1.54 then, about £2.84 today | 649 | 352 |
| kg of roasting chickenlagged inflation£2.20 then, about £4.07 today | 455 | 246 |
| pints of milklagged inflation34p then, about 70p today | 2,924 | 1,429 |
| litres of unleadedlagged inflation70p then, about £1.48 today | 1,429 | 678 |
| nips of whiskyoutran inflation£1.37 then, about £4.20 today | 730 | 238 |
| sliced white loavesoutran inflation51p then, about £1.51 today | 1,961 | 664 |
| kg of rump steak£8.62 then, about £20.33 today | 116 | 49 |
| pints of bitter£1.73 then, about £4.09 today | 578 | 244 |
| Same money, adjusted for inflation | £1,000 | £2,549 |
The ONS stopped publishing these average prices in January 2025. Today's figures are that last reading moved on with inflation, so treat them as close rather than exact.
Houses and wages
Inflation is one story. What people earned, and what a home cost, are the other two.
Average house
£71,122 → £278,784
Up 3.9×, against 2.5× for prices generally
Average pay
£15,818 → £39,312
A year's average earnings, up 2.5×
Years of pay for a house
4.5 → 7.1
Average house price divided by average annual pay
If it had tracked wages
£2,485
What £1,000 in 1999 would be today if it had grown with pay rather than prices