The Money Statistics - October 2025

October 2025 edition of The Money Statistics,

The Money Charity’s complete monthly round-up of statistics about how we use money in the UK, kindly funded by Vanquis.   

Upsides:

• While real pay fell sharply during the cost of living crisis, on average, according to ONS, total real pay has grown again since mid-2023, with a total gain of 3.5% over the last two years.
• Households have been increasing their savings, with the household savings ratio rising from 5.1% in Q3 2023 to 10.8% in Q2 2025.
• Consumer confidence has improved over the last two years, with the GFK measure of consumer confidence rising from -50 two years ago to -19 in September 2025.
• The UK economy is growing, albeit slowly, with GDP increasing by 0.3% in the three months to August 2025.

Challenges:

• There are also many challenges in the current economic picture, with inflation continuing at 3.8% in the year to September 2025, and interest rates significantly higher than before the pandemic.
• The Government is expected to raise taxes in the November budget, to try to reduce its rising budget deficit.
• Energy prices rose again on 1 October, with the Ofgem price cap rising by 2%, taking the annual energy cost for a typical dual-fuel household to £1,755.
• The UK economy is still far from environmentally sustainable. In 2024, the UK emitted 371 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, 5.4 tonnes per person, with transport being the leading polluter (30% of the total).
  

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