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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

#121

Post by sologoub »

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

Can’t seem to find data to backup this observation, so leaning on anekdata instead - when traveling in EU, food prices seemed a lot lower than US. If this is true, an equivalent nominal increase would translate to a higher percent increase. For example, if the good costs $10 in US and $5 in UK, both see an increase of $1 (let’s say due to some shared factor like energy cost), then US would report 10% increase and UK 20%.

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

#122

Post by izzydata »

boc wrote: post #35

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.

Jokes on them. I just eat less food now to compensate. That will show them.

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

#124

Post by dougmwne »

_Wintermute wrote: post #87

For reference, that's a fairly average value for Europe at the moment. Not sure why the UK is being singled out. https://i.redd.it/8hbhiqhowjpa1.png

Media narrative obviously. This looks like a story about the war’s effects on energy and resources. Better to redirect people’s anger so they they don’t lose their appetite for the proxy war.

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

#125

Post by hkt »

WalterBright wrote: post #78
boc wrote: post #35

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.

> Demand for food is inelastic I doubt it. I've read that Americans throw away 40% of their food. Obesity rates suggest people eat far more than they need to. And there are major choices in what to eat - cheap vs expensive calories.

Regrettably, calories are not the only concern. Modelling the cost of a good diet is hard.

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

#126

Post by cmrdporcupine »

hulitu wrote: post #38
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

I can assure you that the sacrifices the British population is making are far more palatable than the ones that Ukrainian civilians are making.

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

#127

Post by matthewmacleod »

GalenErso wrote: post #10

As someone who doesn't live in the UK, the impression I get from headlines is that the UK is becoming poorer by the day, the NHS has collapsed, crime is exploding, poverty is rising, most people can't afford anything anymore, the Royal Mail is hanging by a thread, and the economy is in free fall. What's the reality? In London and outside?

It's hard to get a handle on any kind of objective reality. Headlines always catastrophise.

Anecdotally at least:

- Brexit is a pretty notable economic negative, purely in the sense that it's added a lot of drag to EU trade and made it harder for workers to access the UK market. Nobody likes loads of red tape. It's hard to separate this from the many other influences from COVID through to Ukraine.

- There has been a pretty clear spike in the cost of living, which has a direct impact on things like poverty. Notably the housing market was very disrupted by the policies of the previous prime minister; again, it's hard to separate this from anything else but anecdotally a very large number of people noticed that they suddenly had to find hundreds of pounds of extra money every month due to housing end energy costs.

- The NHS is not in a great state, no. Several years of underinvestment and the pandemic came home to roost, and combined with the pandemic and rather a lot burnout it is not sounding great from anyone who works there.

- The economy isn't in "free fall" but does have several things dragging at it – including supply-chain difficulties, inflation, worker shortages, and other challenges. It's hard out there.

- Most noticeable and in-your-face thing for someone like me—in the fortunate position of being on the breadline—is an obvious deterioration in services and availability. Lots of strikes in various industries, quality of everything suffering, difficulties getting basic goods sometimes. It can feel pretty oppressive, though of course nothing compared to how some people must be struggling to get by at all.

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

#128

Post by yourusername »

bbayles wrote: post #83
boc wrote: post #35

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.

Let's check this empirically. Which cartel-like brands are publicly traded and publish financial reports? We can look at their profit margins next quarter.

Unilever's net profit over 2022 increased by 24.9%

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

#129

Post by skippyboxedhero »

legitster wrote: post #24

> This saw select fruit and vegetables rationed in UK supermarkets, due to shortages caused by bad weather conditions in the South of Europe and Northern Africa and many growers having to cut back due to rising costs of heating greenhouses. Besides the obvious degradation of the energy and fertilizer markets from the war in Ukraine, the collapsed Pound is probably the biggest factor here.

Pound is flat against Euro YTD.
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