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UK meals inflation has hit an 11-month excessive as staples equivalent to bread, meat and fish change into dearer at a time of upper prices for retailers, trade knowledge confirmed on Tuesday.
Meals costs rose at an annual fee of two.6 per cent in April, up from 2.4 per cent in March and the quickest tempo since Could final 12 months, in keeping with the British Retail Consortium.
The commerce physique’s figures come forward of official inflation knowledge for April on Could 21. Each knowledge collection reported a pick-up in meals worth progress initially of this 12 months in contrast with most of 2024, reflecting larger wholesale meals costs and stronger home worth pressures.
BRC chief govt Helen Dickinson stated costs of on a regular basis necessities, together with bread, meat and fish, all elevated between March and April — a interval when retailers confronted “a mountain of latest employment prices” as employer nationwide insurance coverage contributions and the minimal wage each rose.
“The times of store worth deflation look numbered as meals inflation rose to its highest in 11 months, and non-food deflation eased considerably,” she added.
General store costs have been down 0.1 per cent in April in contrast with the identical month final 12 months, the smallest contraction since summer season 2024, when costs stopped rising, in keeping with BRC.
Since chancellor Rachel Reeves used her autumn Funds to set out larger taxes on employers, which took impact this month, quite a few enterprise surveys have pointed to firms planning to chop headcount and lift costs as offsetting measures.
Final month, the Financial institution of England stated meals inflation had risen greater than anticipated initially of the 12 months. Alongside exterior shocks, “it was potential that home components, equivalent to labour prices”, drove the rise, the central financial institution added.
Meals inflation is effectively beneath the double-digit fee reached in 2023, when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine led many commodities to surge in worth. However the rise in April will nonetheless hit poorest households hardest, since they spend a bigger share of their revenue on necessities.
Non-food merchandise have been nonetheless in deflation, dropping in worth by 1.4 per cent — a milder contraction than the 1.9 per cent registered in March and the smallest decline in 9 months.
However contemporary meals inflation elevated to 1.8 per cent in April in contrast with the 12 months earlier than, towards progress of 1.4 per cent in March and above the 3-month common of 1.5 per cent, the BRC stated.
Costs of ambient meals, which will be saved at room temperature, rose by an annual fee of three.7 per cent, unchanged from the earlier month and above the three-month common of three.4 per cent.
Mike Watkins, head of retailer and enterprise perception at NielsenIQ, which compiles the information with the BRC, stated consumers have been persevering with to “profit from decrease store worth inflation a 12 months in the past, however costs are slowly rising throughout provide chains, so retailers will likely be taking a look at methods to mitigate this so far as potential”.
