retail price index
1
5.0
- noun
- UK
- Even according to official statistics, the retail price index rose 12.5 percent in 1985, 7 percent in 1986, 7.2 percent in 1987, and 18.5 percent in 1988.
Examples
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In the future, fuel duty will increase in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation when oil prices are high.
Blog text (6) -
The Retail Price Index is a key indicator of inflation, reflecting how much consumer prices change over time.
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According to the Retail Price Index, the cost of living has increased significantly over the last decade.
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Economists analyze the Retail Price Index to understand trends in consumer spending and inflation.
Synonyms
21
4.2
A measure of how prices people pay change over time
16
3.2
A number that shows how prices of goods and services change over time
12
4.6
Average prices for goods and services in an economy over time
9
3.9
An official measure of how prices people pay for goods and services change over time
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently derivable from combining 'retail' (selling to end consumers), 'price' (money required to buy an item) and 'index' (a numeric indicator): it simply names an index that measures retail prices. This is a regular compositional compound with no idiomatic shift and similar constructions exist across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should grasp the meaning.
Etymology
Retail price index comes from the simple idea of shops writing down prices: retail means selling to shoppers, price is the cost, and index is a single number that shows change. So, the phrase came to mean 'an official measure of how the prices people pay change over time'.