UK ONS Economic Data — CPI, GDP, Unemployment, House Prices

Fetch official UK economic statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) API. Covers CPI and CPIH inflation (headline and core), GDP growth (QoQ and YoY), unemployment rate, employment rate, average earnings, retail sales, industrial production, house price index, trade balance, Bank Rate, consumer credit, mortgage lending, and government borrowing. 20 pre-configured indicators. Free, no API key required.

What It Does

• Fetches 20 pre-configured UK economic time series directly from the ONS API
• All indicators fetch concurrently for speed
• Returns standardized records: indicator, date, value, unit, frequency
• Configurable since date to limit history
• Gracefully skips unavailable series with a warning

Available Indicators

Key	Name	Frequency
cpih_headline	CPIH Headline Inflation YoY	Monthly
cpih_core	CPIH Core ex. Energy & Food YoY	Monthly
cpi_headline	CPI Headline Inflation YoY	Monthly
cpi_core	CPI Core ex. Energy & Food YoY	Monthly
gdp_qoq	GDP Growth QoQ	Quarterly
gdp_yoy	GDP Growth YoY	Quarterly
gdp_index	GDP Chained Volume Index	Quarterly
unemployment_rate	ILO Unemployment Rate	Quarterly
employment_rate	Employment Rate 16-64	Quarterly
average_weekly_earnings	Average Weekly Earnings YoY	Monthly
retail_sales	Retail Sales Volume Index	Monthly
industrial_production	Index of Production	Monthly
house_price_index	UK House Price Index YoY	Monthly
trade_balance	Total Trade Balance (£m)	Monthly
bank_rate	Bank of England Bank Rate	Monthly
net_consumer_credit	Net Consumer Credit Lending (£m)	Monthly
net_mortgage_lending	Net Mortgage Lending (£m)	Monthly
public_sector_net_borrowing	Public Sector Net Borrowing (£m)	Monthly
pmi_manufacturing	PMI Manufacturing	Monthly
current_account	Current Account Balance (£m)	Quarterly

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
indicators	array	12 key indicators	ONS indicator keys to fetch
since	string	"2010 Jan"	Start date (ONS format: "2010 Jan", "2010 Q1", or "2010")

Sample Output

[
  {
    "indicator": "cpih_headline",
    "indicator_name": "CPIH Headline Inflation YoY (UK, monthly)",
    "country": "United Kingdom",
    "date": "2024 Jun",
    "value": 2.7,
    "unit": "Annual rate of change (%)",
    "frequency": "monthly"
  },
  {
    "indicator": "gdp_qoq",
    "indicator_name": "GDP Growth QoQ (UK, quarterly)",
    "country": "United Kingdom",
    "date": "2024 Q1",
    "value": 0.7,
    "unit": "% change on previous quarter",
    "frequency": "quarterly"
  },
  {
    "indicator": "house_price_index",
    "indicator_name": "UK House Price Index YoY (UK, monthly)",
    "country": "United Kingdom",
    "date": "2024 Jun",
    "value": 2.7,
    "unit": "Annual % change, all dwellings",
    "frequency": "monthly"
  }
]

Use Cases

GBP/USD macro analysis — Monitor UK inflation (CPIH), growth (GDP QoQ), and employment to anticipate Bank of England rate decisions and GBP directional moves.

BoE rate path forecasting — Track CPI, average earnings, and GDP together to model the MPC's reaction function and build GBP rate probability models.

UK housing market — Combine house_price_index, net_mortgage_lending, and bank_rate for a complete picture of the UK property market cycle.

UK fiscal health — Monitor public_sector_net_borrowing monthly to track the UK government's fiscal position and debt trajectory.

UK consumer health — retail_sales, net_consumer_credit, and average_weekly_earnings together paint the consumer spending picture.

UK trade & current account — Track trade_balance and current_account for GBP pressure from external imbalances.

Pricing

• $0.002 per indicator fetched (PPE — Pay Per Event)
• Default run (12 indicators) ≈ $0.024

FAQ

Do I need an API key? No. The ONS API is free and open — no registration required.

How current is the data? ONS data is updated on release day. Major releases (CPI, GDP, employment) follow the UK statistical release calendar. Typical lag: 3–6 weeks for monthly data, 6–8 weeks for quarterly.

What is CPIH vs CPI? CPIH includes owner occupiers' housing costs (OOH), making it the ONS's preferred measure of consumer price inflation. CPI excludes OOH and is the Bank of England's official target measure (2%).

Can I get regional UK data (Scotland, Wales, etc.)? The current catalog covers UK-wide aggregates. Regional series have different ONS codes — submit a request via Apify issues.

Data Source

Official ONS API — UK Office for National Statistics, free public data.

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Related actors

• ECB Economic Data Tracker — Eurozone HICP and ECB rates to compare with UK CPI and Bank Rate for GBP/EUR dynamics
• BIS Central Bank Rates — Global central bank policy rates including BoE in international context
• OECD Stats Tracker — OECD comparative data for UK benchmarking against G7 peers

Feedback

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Keywords: UK economy, ONS, Office for National Statistics, GDP, inflation, CPI, unemployment, UK macro data, economic indicators, UK statistics, FRED, British economy, macroeconomics