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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

#181

Post by skippyboxedhero »

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 seems that way because part of the problem is that grievance has become the most valuable currency.

Food here is, empirically, still unbelievably cheap. I can buy a 500g bag of spaghetti for 28p, lentil and beans are cheap, bread is relatively cheap, chicken is so cheap that you wonder how safe it is...still...but the problem is that in the UK, if anything doesn't benefit you immediately then people will complain.

RM...they had a monopoly, their workers are almost always threatening industrial action, like they aren't "hanging by a thread"...they have a licence to print money, workers just won't turn up to work because they feel aggrieved.

NHS...funding is through the roof, the biggest individual component of the budget with a deficit of 5% and tax % of GDP at all-time highs...workers on strike, "they get paid more in Australia" (true of almost every job in the UK because Australia also has significantly higher CoL).

Crime? Again, we have an underclass of people who commit all the crime, repeat offenders often walk free over and over, shoplifting isn't investigated, robberies aren't investigated...and people wonder why it is attractive to commit crime?

Poverty hasn't increased, unemployment has dropped like a stone over the past ten years, all this time we have people like you: the economy is in FREE FALL, poverty is going to rise soon...it hasn't happened, the issue we have is that people are constantly feeling aggrieved. This seems to be a disease of the West too, you see the same thing in the US where there are real economic issues but there is very little discussion of them...all it is just single-dimensional, "things have never been so bad" grievance-building.

But no, nothing has really changed. Life carries on unsurprisingly. The UK has issues, food prices aren't one (in fact, food prices are far too low still), problems that do exist remain unaddressed, problems that don't exist absorb all of the attention.

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

#182

Post by martinald »

samhuk wrote: post #167

As a person living in the UK, I have definitely noticed a considerable rise in unit prices. One of many examples is that a loaf of my favourite bread increased from £3 to £4 recently, which was a shocker. Toilet roll prices, as ever what the news loves to talk about, has exploded, increasing by around 70% since 2020 by my anecdotal observation. A sad thought I have about inflation is the fact that it is, wittingly or…

Assets are deflating at the moment though. S&P500 is down, property prices are down, etc. Asset prices are highly inversely correlated to interest rates, so for a 'rich' person you are actually much better off without inflation, as interest rates are lower and asset prices rise faster.

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

#183

Post by bcrosby95 »

illiarian wrote: post #166
clnq wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The consumer decides what they are prepared to pay for a product, unless the demand is inelastic. And for food overall, the demand is inelastic. Consumers cannot just say "food is too expensive for me, so I think I'm going to to go without it this month". They can choose between the individual products they buy, so it wouldn't be a problem if just some food items got expensive. But the price of food overall is inflat…

> But the price of food overall is inflating. I'm a senior programmer with outrageous salary, and I still paused yesterday looking at the price of beef. Went for chicken instead. I wish inflation numbers would also include things like "percentage of income spent on just living: food and shelter"

I've been off beef for a long time now (family of 5). My grocery bill is $2k/month and my kids are still young. I can't imagine what it'll be when they're all teenagers.

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

#184

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

jaqalopes wrote: post #30
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?

Anecdotally, my buddy (31M) in London says he's having the time of his life. Making a lot of money at BP, parties every weekend, just moved into a nice flat with a partner. I suspect, just like in America, that if you're inside the "formal economy" (corporate job with real benefits and potential for career growth) your life is pretty great. If you're outside that (service worker, gig economy, small business owner, NE…

>Making a lot of money at BP, parties every weekend

Sounds just like the roaring twenties.

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

#186

Post by tristor »

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

Nearly all inflation is tied to inflation in cost of energy. Food is especially related to energy cost, since the core cost of modern food creation is the cost of fertilizer and operating artificial growing environments (greenhouses, metered and pre-mixed feed waters). Energy is going up, so food is going up, this impacts Europe more than the US, because they operate in different energy markets. More generally, for almost all goods, the cost of transport went up, both because of the cost of energy, and because of challenges with logistics during the pandemic that have not fully subsided.

Energy costs are the primary driving factors for the cost of nearly all aspects of modern life.

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

#187

Post by makomk »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #53
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?

Economy is not great but certainly not in free fall. Most people are ok. Crime is no worse than in other major European countries. There are no riots in London (looking at you, Paris...)

On the other hand, according to certain parts of the UK press those riots in France are a sign that their politics is far healthier than the awful state of politics here (looking at you, Guardian)...

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

#188

Post by bialpio »

yourusername wrote: post #128
bbayles wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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%

It's probably better to look at the margin, I could see how the profits increased in absolute numbers as people may have switched from eating out to home-cooked food.

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

#189

Post by heisenbit »

Glancing at the exchange rates the pound fell year over year 5% from a local max vs Euro so this is on top of the certainly high inflation on Europe. Also it is said that UK supermarkets lock in prices long term with domestic producers. But goods are somewhat mobile so the shelfs in the UK empty. And while it is just an anecdotal bit - our local Aldi here in Germany was selling British scones and shortbread.

While the exchange rates over the past decade mostly move sideways and the effect yoy should be one-off the current moves in the financial markets have potential for further disruption and the UK being more isolated will see her Pound fluctuating more with more immediate impact on people and business.

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

#190

Post by johndunne »

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?

I’d say they’re overly dramatic headlines. For example, the nhs is under funded, as always, but still functioning with long wait time s for non emergency surgery/consultation. Poverty is rising as a consequence of the cost of living crisis. The Royal Mail has always been an overly priced service buts there’s loads more competition. Personally, I reckon we should just let the service die!
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