, Columnist
Stocks Aren't the Inflation Hedge You Think They Are
When inflation is above 8%, your best bet is to buy cheap and focus on dividends.
Taking stock.
Photographer: Bloomberg/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Virgin Media has been sending customers letters telling them their prices are going up. Really going up. This year they, will be up 12% and from April 2024 they will go up by the RPI rate of inflation (which is usually a good one percentage point more than the government’s official measure, CPI), plus an additional 3.9%. Every year.
That’s audacious of Virgin, and irritating for hard-pressed consumers. But it’s also a reminder of just how sticky inflation can be: If everyone put their prices up by five percentage points more than the previous year’s inflation every year, how could inflation ever fall?