The question on many people’s lips of late has been whether food price rises have peaked. Food price inflation hit 18.3 percent according to the most recent figures from ONS. This is the highest annual rise in 45 years. And the hope is that food price rises will now begin to ease. But people perhaps misunderstand what this means. And are perhaps asking the wrong question anyway.
Shoppers will increasingly have noticed that the price of their groceries and the cost of filling up at the forecourt have been on the rise. Last month UK consumer price inflation, using the CPI measure, rose by 3% y/y. This represents the fastest rate of increase since April 2012. Inflationary pressures are more marked within consumer goods (+3.2% y/y) rather than services (+2.7% y/y). Meanwhile the most comprehensive measure of inflation, the CPIH index which includes owner occupiers’ housing costs along with Council Tax (or rates in NI), nudged higher to 2.8% y/y in September. Continue reading
