Shoppers are turning to packed lunches in an attempt to try and keep their budgets in line, with 86 million more lunchboxes brought to work last year, new research suggests.
Spending on alcohol also fell by more than half in January compared with December – with people taking part in Dry January and other health challenges, according to industry data.
‘Huge change’ to UK’s food supply from tomorrow – and prices could rise | Money blog
It comes as figures show the recent trend of a gradual easing in grocery price inflation was effectively halted in January as retailers reined in special offers after Christmas.
Kantar Worldpanel, which tracks sales among chains, said the rate of annual price rises for food, drink and other household essentials remained high at 6.8% during the four weeks to 21 January.
It represented a drop of just 0.1% on December’s grocery inflation rate of 6.9%.
However, separate figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) – a trade association which represents supermarkets – and NielsenIQ, also out on Tuesday, are more upbeat.
Their research suggests shop price inflation – which includes both groceries and non-food items like clothes – fell this month to its lowest level since May 2022.
BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said the drop was driven mostly by offers on non-food items. However, a drop in the price of tea and milk was also said to be a factor.
The pace of grocery price rises – and the more general consumer price index (CPI) of inflation – had been declining towards the end of last year.
But CPI surprisingly went up earlier this month, and there has been growing concern that prices will soon be hit by disruption to supply routes in the Red Sea, amid attacks on shipping linked to the Israel-Hamas war.
However, Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said its latest figures were “more about the battle between the supermarkets to offer best value, rather than geopolitics”.
He said: “Retailers have taken their foot off the promotions gas slightly as we’ve come into the new year, and that’s meant inflation hasn’t fallen as quickly.
“Items bought on offer accounted for 27% of all grocery spending in January versus 32% last month.
“Christmas is always a bumper period for deals and the grocers pulled the price lever especially hard in December, as they sought to get shoppers through their doors.”
Read more on Sky News:
Ryanair cuts profit forecast
Lloyds axes mobile bank branches
Amazon and iRobot merger abandoned
Kantar said Britons were continuing to trim costs and keep an eye out for offers while inflation remained “stubbornly high”.
Mr McKevitt said: “There’s still plenty of opportunities for consumers to make savings. The overall trend in offers is up versus this time last year, and nearly £500m more was spent on offers this January than in the same month in 2023.”
In addition, Researchers also said “Veganuary” could be responsible for an 8% increase in sales of own label plant-based ranges.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
How inflation is affecting daily lives
However, despite grocery inflation remaining high, the pace of price rises is less than half of what it was a year ago, when Kantar’s rate for January was 16.7%.
Meanwhile the BRC and NielsenIQ said shop price annual inflation eased to 2.9% in January, down from 4.3% in December – the lowest since May 2022.
The researchers also said food inflation eased from 6.7% in December to 6.1% in January.
Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at NielsenIQ, said: “Shoppers are seeing savings at the checkout with non-food retailers on promotion and food retailers continuing to reduce prices when the costs of goods fall.
“However, consumer demand remains fragile as most households are yet to feel better off after nearly two years of inflation.”
Rory McIlroy has completed a career Grand Slam in golf with his win at the US Masters tournament.
The Masters was the last major tournament left for McIlroy to complete the modern golf Grand Slam – a feat only five others have managed before him.
McIlroy, who was making his 11th attempt at completing the Grand Slam, faced off Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff to decide the Masters champion, after they finished tied on 11 under at the end of regulation on Sunday.
McIlroy reacts as he wins. Pic: AP
McIlroy reacts after winning against Justin Rose at the Masters. Pic: AP
“It’s my 17th time here and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time,” McIlroy said just before slipping on the Green Jacket during the presentation ceremony.
“I’m just absolutely honoured and thrilled and just so proud to be able to call myself a Masters champion.”
McIlroy had missed his six-foot putt for par, a bogey which dropped him back to 11 under, where he joined Rose – leading to a dramatic play-off between the two.
Only five other golfers have been able to complete a career Grand Slam, including Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen.
Pic: AP
McIlroy is a two-time winner of the PGA Championship, claiming the prize in 2012 and 2014.
The 35-year-old also won his first major title, the US Open, in 2011, and won The Open Championship in 2014.
How did McIlroy get to the victory?
McIlroy recovered from losing his overnight two-shot advantage with an opening-hole double bogey to initially take control at Augusta National, only to blow a four-shot lead over his closing six holes.
The world No 2 bogeyed the last to close a one-over 73 and slip back to 11 under alongside Rose, who overturned a seven-stroke deficit and posted a stunning final-round 66 to force a play-off.
The players returned to the 18th for the play-off, where McIlroy made amends for his 72nd-hole blunder by firing a stunning approach to within three feet of the pin and making the birdie putt required for a life-changing win.
UK
Race to keep British Steel furnaces running with last-minute efforts to secure raw materials under way
Last-minute efforts to keep British Steel operating are to be carried out today, as the plant races to secure a supply of raw materials.
The Department for Business and Trade said officials are working to secure supplies of materials, including coking coal, to keep British Steel operational, as well as to ensure all staff will be paid.
It added that setting up new supply chains was “crucial” as a fall in blast furnace temperature could risk “irreparable damage to the site, with the steel setting and scarring the machinery”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
British Steel: What happens next?
Companies including Tata – which ran the now-closed Port Talbot steelworks – and Rainham Steel have offered managerial support and materials to keep the Lincolnshire site running.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said in a statement that “when I said steelmaking has a future in the UK, I meant it”.
“Steel is vital for our national security and our ambitious plans for the housing, infrastructure and manufacturing sectors in the UK,” he added.
“We will set out a long-term plan to co-invest with the private sector to ensure steel in the UK has a bright and sustainable future.”
Unions said Jingye decided to cancel orders of key materials for the steelworks
Earlier this month, unions said the steelwork’s owner, Chinese company Jingye, decided to cancel future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
It meant the Scunthorpe plant had been on course to close down by May, bit it sparked urgent calls for government intervention.
Emergency legislation was passed on Saturday bringing the steelworks into effective government control, and officials were on site as soon as the new legislation came into force.
However, the business secretary has warned that does not mean the plant is guaranteed to survive.
Appearing on Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Mr Reynolds also said he would not bring a Chinese company into the “sensitive” steel sector again.
“I don’t know… the Boris Johnson government when they did this, what exactly the situation was,” he added. “But I think it’s a sensitive area.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘I wouldn’t bring a Chinese company into our steel sector’
Jingye stepped in with a deal to buy British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant out of insolvency in 2020, when Mr Johnson was prime minister.
The minister added that while The Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill stops short of the full nationalisation of British Steel, “to be frank, as I said to parliament yesterday, it is perhaps at this stage the likely option”.
The Conservatives accused the government of acting “too late” and implementing a “botched nationalisation” after ignoring warnings about the risk to the steelworks.
Read more:
A sticking plaster, not a solution: What next for British Steel?
How Trump, China and Reform all played their part
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said: “The Labour Government have landed themselves in a steel crisis entirely of their own making.
“They’ve made poor decisions and let the unions dictate their actions.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year 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
-
Sports4 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
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway