The cost of living crisis has continued throughout the first half of 2023. Consumers are tackling the crisis on multiple fronts as the Bank of England’s strategy of increasing interest rates to bring down inflation impacts food, energy and housing costs.

We’ve seen engagement with our Personal Finance category – a key destination for consumers seeking cost of living information and guidance – increase by +2% in the first half of the year vs. H1 2021.

Readers turn to trusted cost of living sources

• +23% growth in page views: Two cost of living relevant content topics within our Personal Finance and Business & Finance categories increased by almost a quarter last week. Weekly page views for the Financial Assistance and Economy topics grew by +23%.

• 2.2x page views growth: There was related growth for the Grocery Shopping content topic from our Shopping category as food prices remain high. Engagement for the topic more than doubled to 1.8m weekly page views, notably +84% higher than the 2023 seven-day average.

• Looking ahead: Since the beginning of the year, in weeks the Bank of England has changed interest rates, engagement with the Financial Assistance content topic has increased by an average of +27%. Consider these weeks key when planning cost of living relevant messaging.

Take Action

• Consumers affected by the cost of living crisis have become increasingly savvy when it comes to how changes to economic policy affects their personal finances. We’ve seen this when the Government announces new fiscal policies during Budget time and now around Bank of England’s base rate setting.

About Reading the Nation

Reading the Nation will connect you to our broadcast-scale audience – who we see across the Ozone platform in their millions day-in-day-out – to unearth insights into their habits and behaviours when topics start to trend or big stories break.

Check out previous issues of Reading the Nation below: