While rising energy costs have been a concern for consumers, the price of food is troubling UK households just as much. Luckily, food inflation fell from 13.4% in July to 11.5% in August, according to new figures from the British Rail Consortium. This brought overall shop price inflation down to 6.9%, a slight drop from July’s 7.6%. Learn more about the state of the supermarket below.
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This downward trend is good news for consumers as price increases for kitchen staples like meat, potatoes, and some cooking oils have slowed. Prices for other essentials like toiletries and luxuries such as cosmetics have similarly slowed. Unfortunately, right around back-to-school time, inflation has edged up on clothing and footwear.
High inflation has plagued the nation recently, putting a squeeze on many UK households. But we’re not alone — all over the world, the price of food and other goods has gone up as a result of a high rate of inflation. After the pandemic lockdowns ended, prices initially surged as supply chains attempted to keep up with renewed demand, but after Russia invaded Ukraine, energy prices rose even further.
This perfect storm of inflation-rising conditions caused inflation to hit a 41 year high of 11.1% in October 2022 and food inflation to peak at 19.1% in March this year. However, when figures become available in late September, experts expect the inflation rate to fall for August.
Of course, there has been a public outcry about the prices and supermarkets are under enormous pressure to reduce them, to no avail. This has led to the trust in the supermarket sector to fall to its lowest since a decade ago during the horsemeat scandal, according to consumer group, Which?
According to their latest monthly consumer insight tracker, August’s numbers dropped to the lowest since February 2013. At the time, it was discovered that meat products contained undisclosed horse DNA.
Now, Which? is reporting that less than half of their 2,000 respondents said they trusted the supermarkets to act in their best interest, and one in five said that they had no trust at all.
The report also states that for many, food prices were now as much a concern for consumers as energy bills. Those worried about the cost of groceries made up nearly nine in 10 respondents.
If food prices or energy costs are concerning you, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your financial adviser to discuss your finances and the best plan moving forward.