Grocery price inflation falls for fifth month in a row, retail data suggests
Grocery price inflation has eased for the fifth month in a row – as the cost of some staples come down.
Closely watched data from Kantar Worldpanel, which tracks supermarket sales and bills, found that while the expense of a food shop is still higher than last year, the pace of price rises has been slowing down this summer.
Its researchers reported a grocery price inflation rate of 12.7% in the four weeks to 6 August – a 2.2 percentage point drop from the month before.
Kantar said a fall in the cost of some staples was a factor. It said shoppers paid £1.50 for four pints of milk last month, down from £1.69 in March.
The average cost of a litre of sunflower oil is now said to be £2.19 – 22 pence less than in the spring.
Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight, Fraser McKevitt, said: “The latest slowdown in price rises is the second sharpest monthly fall since we started monitoring grocery inflation in this way back in 2008.
“Prices are still up year on year across every supermarket shelf, but consumers will have been relieved to see the cost of some staple goods starting to edge down compared with earlier in 2023.”
He said the average increase in households’ weekly grocery shop is £5.13, when compared with last year.
Researchers also found that the recent wet weather across much of the UK had an impact on supermarkets’ figures in July.
Sales of ice cream and Halloumi were down around 30% – while purchases of soft drinks fell by nearly a fifth.
Read more from business:
B&Q apologises for ‘White Supremacy’ books in product listing
UK employers set to boost wages by 5%
‘Critical’ Bank of England payments system fails
However sales of soup – traditionally seen as a winter warmer product – were up 16% year-on-year.
Kantar said the gloomy weather was also likely to have contributed to a drop in footfall, which was down for the first time in 18 months as people made 320,000 fewer trips to supermarkets compared to a year ago.
Overall take-home grocery sales rose by 6.5% in the four weeks to 6 August, down from 10.4% in the previous period.
But researchers said other supermarkets may soon benefit from the collapse of Wilko, which went into administration last week.
The chain’s 400 stores remain open – for now – but its long-term future is in doubt.
“Wilko is a popular choice for many shoppers with 7.6 million households visiting its stores to buy groceries in the last year,” said Mr McKevitt.
He added: “Wilko’s rivals will be keeping a close eye on its fortunes in the coming days and weeks as they look to draw some of its shoppers through their doors.”
Kantar’s research comes ahead of new official inflation figures, which are due to be released by the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday morning.
Last month it reported a bigger-than-expected drop in the rate to 7.9% in the year up to June.
The Bank of England then decided to raise interest rates for the 14th time in a row to 5.25% as part of attempts to bring inflation back down to its target of 2%.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Economy more ‘resilient’ than expected
Inflation is expected to fall again this week, although experts believe it is unlikely the Bank will achieve its target this year.
The Bank of England’s chief economist, Huw Pill, also said last week that food prices may never fall back to the level they were before the war in Ukraine began.
Separate figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) earlier this month also suggested food price inflation has been falling in recent months, with the cost of some staples coming down.
But it warned the trend may not continue smoothly this year because there were “dark clouds on the horizon”.
The BRC said this included the potential impact on prices of Russia’s decision to pull out of a deal to allow the safe export of grain from Ukraine, as well as a ban by the Indian government on the export of some types of rice.
Waspi campaigners have threatened legal action against the government unless it reconsiders its decision to reject compensation.
In December, the government said it would not be compensating millions of women born in the 1950s – known as Waspi women – who say they were not given sufficient warning of the state pension age for women being lifted from 60 to 65.
It was due to be phased in over 10 years from 2010, but in 2011 was sped up to be reached by 2018, then rose to the age of 66 in 2020.
A watchdog had recommended that compensation be paid to those affected, but Sir Keir Starmer said at the time that taxpayers could not afford what could have been a £10.5bn package.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
From December: No pay out for ‘waspi’ pension women
On Monday, the Waspi campaign said it had sent a “letter before action” to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) warning the government of High Court proceedings if no action is taken.
Angela Madden, chair of Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign group, said members will not allow the DWP’s “gaslighting” of victims to go “unchallenged”.
She said: “The government has accepted that 1950s-born women are victims of maladministration, but it now says none of us suffered any injustice. We believe this is not only an outrage but legally wrong.
“We have been successful before and we are confident we will be again. But what would be better for everyone is if the Secretary of State (Liz Kendall) now saw sense and came to the table to sort out a compensation package.
“The alternative is continued defence of the indefensible but this time in front of a judge.”
The group has launched a £75,000 CrowdJustice campaign to fund legal action, and said the government has 14 days to respond before the case is filed.
Read more:
What is a Waspi woman and what happened to them?
About 3.6 million women were affected by their state pension age being lifted from 60 to 65. File pic: PA
In the mid-1990s, the government passed a law to raise the retirement age for women over a 10-year period to make it equal to men.
The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in the early 2010s under David Cameron and Nick Clegg then sped up the timetable as part of its cost-cutting measures.
In 2011, a new Pensions Act was introduced that not only shortened the timetable to increase the women’s pension age to 65 by two years but also raised the overall pension age to 66 by October 2020 – saving the government around £30bn.
About 3.6 million women in the UK were affected – as many complained they weren’t appropriately notified of the changes and some only received letters about it 14 years after the legislation passed.
While in opposition, Rachel Reeves, now the chancellor, and Liz Kendall, now pensions secretary, were among several Labour MPs who supported the Waspi women’s campaign.
The now-Chancellor said in a 2016 debate that women affected by the increase in state pension age had been “done and injustice” and urged the government to “think again”.
Read more from Sky News:
Body found in search for missing jogger
Conservatives win German election
A government spokesperson said: “We accept the Ombudsman’s finding of maladministration and have apologised for there being a 28-month delay in writing to 1950s-born women.
“However, evidence showed only one in four people remember reading and receiving letters that they weren’t expecting and that by 2006, 90% of 1950s-born women knew that the state pension age was changing.
“Earlier letters wouldn’t have affected this. For these and other reasons, the government cannot justify paying for a £10.5 billion compensation scheme at the expense of the taxpayer.”
Russian oligarchs with links to the Kremlin can now be banned from the UK, the government has announced as part of a fresh sanctions package on the third anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Home Office said “elites” linked to the Russian state can now be prevented from entering the UK under the new sanctions.
Those who could be banned include anyone who provides “significant support” to the Kremlin, those who owe their “significant status or wealth” to the Russian state, and those “who enjoy access to the highest levels” of the regime.
The announcement has been timed to coincide with the three-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Another set of sanctions is expected from the Foreign Office on Monday.
Security minister Dan Jarvis said: “Border security is national security, and we will use all the tools at our disposal to protect our country against the threat from Russia.
“The measures announced today slam the door shut to the oligarchs who have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people whilst bankrolling this illegal and unjustifiable war.
“My message to Putin’s friends in Moscow is simple: you are not welcome in the UK.”
The UK government said Kremlin-linked elites can pose a “real and present danger to our way of life” as they denounce British values in public “while enjoying the benefits of the UK in private”.
It said they can act as “tools” for the Russian state to enable President Putin’s aggression in Ukraine and beyond.
Shortly after the war in Ukraine started on 24 February 2022, the UK imposed financial sanctions on oligarchs, including closing legal loopholes used to launder money.
Read more:
Zelenskyy says he would give up presidency in return for peace and NATO membership
Pay back the billions of aid, Trump tells Ukraine
In November last year, Operation Destabilise, run by the National Crime Agency (NCA), successfully disrupted two billion-dollar Russian money laundering networks operating around the world, including in the UK which was a key hub.
They provided services to Russian oligarchs and were helping fund Kremlin espionage operations.
Ekatarina Zhdanova is said to have run a money laundering network called Smart that has been shut down. Pic: NCA
One of the key players was identified as Ekaterina Zhdanova who is alleged to have run a money laundering network called Smart. She was sanctioned by the US in November last year and is currently in French custody awaiting a trial.
A total of 84 arrests were made under Operation Destabilise in November and more than £20m in illicit funds seized.
The NCA has made a further six arrests since then and seized £1m more in case.
The networks also helped Russian clients to illegally bypass financial restrictions to invest money in the UK.
US officials have been in talks with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia over the future of Ukraine for the past week.
However, neither Ukraine nor any European country was at the table, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying he will not accept any peace deal Kyiv is not involved in.
Sir Keir Starmer has backed Mr Zelenskyy on that so all eyes will be on the prime minister when he visits Mr Trump in Washington DC this week.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports11 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway