The price of a pint has risen 15,600pc in the Queen’s lifetime – but the value of money has fallen each year
Here's one to raise your glass to tonight: the price of a pint has risen by 15,633 per cent since the Queen was born 90 years ago. Er – cheers?
But while booze is no longer a bargain, research by Lloyds Bank Private Banking also found the value of money has fallen by an average of 4.6 per cent since 1926.
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And someone who enjoyed a luxury lifestyle with £1m on the day of the Queen's birth would now need £55.7m to have the equivalent buying power – a 56-fold increase in prices (although to be fair that person would be well over 100 by now – their appetite may have diminished).
Think inflation is high now? Between 1936-1946 prices increased 69 per cent, with a similar level of over the following 10 years – while in the decade after 1966, prices grew 10 per cent each year, thanks to oil price hikes by Opec and a rise in wages. The lowest annual increase was between 1996 and 2006, when prices rose 2.6 per cent.
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Meanwhile, the FTSE All Share Index has recorded a 75-fold increase over the Queen's lifetime – while £1m deposited in a savings account in 1926 would have earned an investor £20.75m by now.
"The value of money has fallen substantially since the birth of Queen Elizabeth in 1926 as retail prices and the cost of many everyday items has soared. Such has been the rise in inflation that £1.80 in 1926 would have provided the same spending power as £100 today," said Sarah Deaves, private banking director at Lloyds.
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"It is interesting that despite the ups and downs in the stock market, the FTSE All Share Index has outpaced cash over this period. For many people, where appropriate, investing some of their money in the market and getting a wider exposure to the UK economy can help grow the value of their money ahead of inflation.”