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NewsRescue
According to Bloomberg, grocery inflation in the United Kingdom has begun to drop as two separate studies indicate that food-price increases may have peaked.
According to market research firm Kantar, food inflation in the country declined for the third consecutive month in June, but remained at 16.5%, down from 17.2% the previous month.
According to Kantar, inflation is at its sixth-highest level since the 2008 financial crisis. The most expensive items were eggs, cooking sauces, and frozen potato goods.
Another survey, done by Lloyds Bank, found that food production costs in the UK fell for the first time since 2016 in May.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), grocery price rise reached 19.1% in April, the highest percentage in more than 45 years.
Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, had warned that the easing of inflation could take longer than projected.
“The ongoing squeeze is clearly weighing on the nation’s mind,” said Fraser McKevitt, Kantar’s head of retail and consumer intelligence. “Rising grocery prices are the only one of the top five financial concerns that consumers have now that they were at the start of this year.”
According to a Lloyds poll, an index tracking expenses for food and beverage companies declined for the first time in more than seven years. “It will still take some time before we see the benefit in terms of shelf prices,” says Annabel Finlay, managing director of food, drink, and leisure at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.
“This is, in part, due to the long-term nature of contracts between manufacturers and retailers, as well as the broader segments of the production chain,” she noted.
Earlier, UK officials reportedly met with supermarket executives to discuss price reduction, telling them that any initiative to help consumers lower food prices would be entirely voluntary.
Last week, Ken Murphy, CEO of Britain’s largest supermarket chain Tesco, saw some signs of easing grocery inflation after the company reduced prices on bread, pasta, and broccoli, but he allowed that “it’s unlikely that prices will return to where they were.”
