Where to put your savings to beat inflation

Hard times are coming, so we should be saving. But inflation isn't kind to savers and tax eats away at interest. Merryn Somerset-Webb looks at three accounts to consider – and one to stay away from.

These are confusing times. Look at the inflation numbers. The government's preferred measure, the Consumer Price Index, tells us that prices are rising at a mere 3% a year. That's faster than the rates we've seen for some time but in absolute terms, it really isn't that bad.

The problem? All the evidence suggests things are actually rather worse than the official numbers would have us believe. Not only is the Retail Price Index (the one most of us think is more representative of the real cost of living) currently running at 4.2% but also this week saw the release of the worst producer price inflation (PPI) numbers since records began 22 years ago.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.