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UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

grocerygazette.co.uk

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Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#31

Post by crop_rotation »

The UK politics seems like a separate level of dysfunction. It seems like all the worst decisions being made together. For some reason people voted for Brexit. The PM who was the chief Brexit Campaigner (Boris Johnson) had to resign because of entirely avoidable mistakes. The next PM had to resign too soon due to trying to bring policies which were not well thought out. The current PM had to be annointed since it didn't seem like the Party membership would vote for him.

It doesn't seem like Labour has a charismatic leader either. I could never even find a concrete stance by Corbyn on what he was running on wrt Brexit.

HNers from UK, what does the outlook look like policy wise for the UK.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#32

Post by Tenoke »

noelsusman wrote: post #12

Is this at least partially Brexit related? For comparison, the US has seen food go up by around 10% over the same time period, which is pretty high but also far from 18%. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t02.htm

A better comparison would be other EU countries and I'm seeing food inflation estimates for ~22% in Germany at the top of Google.

0. https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/food-inflation#:~:text=....

1. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/germany-inflation...

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#33

Post by timellis-smith »

noelsusman wrote: post #12

Is this at least partially Brexit related? For comparison, the US has seen food go up by around 10% over the same time period, which is pretty high but also far from 18%. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t02.htm

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/overlook...

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#35

Post by boc »

Demand for food is inelastic, so it makes sense that companies are raising prices as high as possible since people still have to eat. Generally this leads to price competition from other food brands, but when single companies own dozens/hundreds of food brands it’s easy to act like a cartel and keep prices high.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#37

Post by londons_explore »

baggy_trough wrote: post #9
xd wrote: post #4

A lot of the inflation on food is increasingly feeling like businesses cashing in. For instance my old go to brand of breed increased by over 50% months ago.

For some reason they didn't want to cash in before?

Consumers notice price changes. So you don't want to adjust prices unless most of your competitors are also doing so.

Therefore you can see prices fixed for years, and then suddenly a sudden flurry of lots of manufacturers all raising prices 50%.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#38

Post by hulitu »

noelsusman wrote: post #12

Is this at least partially Brexit related? For comparison, the US has seen food go up by around 10% over the same time period, which is pretty high but also far from 18%. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t02.htm

No, it is because the sanctions are really working. Against their own people. But hopefuly the war deliveries are not affected. /s

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#39

Post by contravariant »

illiarian wrote: post #29

Meanwhile in Sweden the CEO of ICA, the largest supermarket chain in the country (53% of the market) said yesterday: "It is actually the consumer who controls what they are prepared to pay for a product. In the end, it is they who decide." https://omni.se/icas-vd-det-ar-kunderna-som-avgor-matpriset/...

That does not contradict the situation in the UK.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#40

Post by dougmwne »

Something interesting is that this article breaks the narrative about it all being about the vegetables and the weather. Veg inflation was 18%, slightly below the average. Several other food categories like grains and fats had higher inflation.

This certainly seems to be more of a sign of a weakening pound not buying as much in n imports than something about food alone.

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