UK meals costs as large a priority for shoppers as power payments, Which? finds

The speed at which meals costs are rising has continued to gradual however stubbornly excessive grocery costs imply the price of the weekly store is now as large a priority as power payments, in keeping with analysis.

Meals inflation fell from 13.4% within the yr to July to 11.5% in August, in keeping with knowledge revealed on Tuesday by the British Retail Consortium. This helped convey general store value inflation down from 7.6% in July to six.9%.

Helen Dickinson, the BRC chief government, described the downward pattern as “higher information for shoppers” and pointed to slower value will increase for meat, potatoes and a few cooking oils.

Worth hikes for toiletries and cosmetics had additionally eased, the BRC stated, primarily based on knowledge for the primary week of August, whereas inflation ticked up on clothes and footwear as outlets ended their summer season gross sales.

Family budgets within the UK and around the globe have been squeezed by speedy will increase in costs for meals and different items, with a lot of the worldwide economic system being roiled by a wave of excessive inflation.

Costs surged as provide chains struggled to reply to demand after the top of Covid lockdowns. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine despatched power costs hovering additional.

Within the UK that precipitated inflation to hit a 41-year excessive of 11.1% final October, whereas meals value inflation peaked at 19.1% in March this yr, in keeping with authorities figures. The newest BRC knowledge recommended the general UK inflation fee ought to fall for August, though these figures won’t be launched till 20 September.

The outsized position of meals inflation has meant supermarkets have confronted political strain to chop costs, amid a backlash from the general public over the size of the will increase.

Because of this belief within the grocery store sector has fallen to its lowest for the reason that horsemeat scandal a decade in the past, a separate ballot by the patron group Which? discovered.

Its month-to-month shopper perception tracker discovered that in August belief had dropped to the bottom it has been since February 2013, when meat merchandise have been discovered to include undisclosed horse DNA.

Lower than half of two,000 adults surveyed by Which? stated they trusted the grocery store sector to behave of their greatest curiosity, whereas practically one in 5 stated they didn’t belief the sector.

The analysis additionally revealed that meals costs have been now as a lot a priority for shoppers as power payments, with nearly 9 in 10 respondents reporting being concerned about the price of groceries.

Katie Alpin, the pinnacle of strategic perception at Which?, stated that month after month of hovering meals costs had “seen belief in supermarkets plummet to a 10-year low, similar to the darkish days of the horsemeat scandal”. She added: “The price of the weekly store is now on a par with power payments as the most important fear for tens of millions of households.”