House pricery

This is a strange article.

The sharp decline in the UK housing market is slowing after the Bank of England slashed interest rates by 1.5 per cent earlier this month. Figures from Nationwide, Britain’s biggest building society, show that the fall in annual house prices slowed to 13.9 per cent this month from 14.6 per cent in October. The fall is the smallest decline since house prices started falling in November 2007.

At no point does the journalist tell us what the fall in house prices was. Presumambly if the fall is the smallest decline since house prices started falling in November 2007 she means that the monthly decline (month-on-month) was the smallest, not that 13.9% is the smallest year-on-year decline.

Retail sales at lowest level since early 2006

Here's a classic press error which is not in the original Press Association story, so might be the Independent's fault. Retail sales are NOT at their 'lowest level since early 2006'. The rate of growth has fallen to its lowest level since 2006. In fact retail sales in September were 140.4, compared to a peak monthly level (on a seasonally adjusted basis) of 133.3 in 2006. That means they were 5.3% higher than the highest point in 2006.