In April 2023, there was a record-breaking rise in food costs in the UK. The rate of food inflation decreased in the following month of May 2023, although these figures remain substantially higher than the statistics from the previous year.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) found that there has been a 15.4% increase in food inflation between May 2022 and May 2023. The BRC has been conducting scientific and social research since 1992, yet this inflation has been the second-quickest annual increase that the BRC has ever measured.
Furthermore, the increase in food inflation was 15.7% between April 2022 and April 2023, meaning that this rate has decreased by 0.3% over a month. Similarly, on a more positive note, Sky News has found that there has been a substantial decrease in global food prices, which have now fallen to the lowest level in two years (since 2021).
As well as the large rate of food inflation, overall inflation in shops has remained very high. In April 2023, the inflation rate in shops was 8.8%, and this figure rose to 9% in May 2023, which is a record-breaking statistic. Experts have now warned that rising food prices and inflation are scheduled to overtake the inflation of energy services and bills, which will lead to food prices having the largest rate of inflation.
Despite the change in first-place inflation position, the price increase for a vast number of services is very worrying to UK consumers. Experts have found that the average person pays £1000 more annually for gas and electricity services than they did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A study conducted by The Financial Conduct Authority has found that approximately 10 million people living in the UK are struggling to meet their financial obligations, particularly due to the cost-of-living crisis. This shocking statistic represents a 3.1 million increase from the previous year, 2022. The study conducted reported a warning to the government about the detriment of this crisis on the UK’s population, claiming that many have been forced to choose between heating and eating due to the rise in inflation rates. The study also found that many residents of the UK have been forced to cancel necessary policies (such as insurance) to live at an acceptable standard.
The general inflation rate in the UK remains in the double digits at 10.1%, despite pledges from the government to reduce these rates in the early months of 2023. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) conducted a survey on May 23, 2023, and found that April 2023 had the second highest borrowing on record (for the month of April specifically).
In April 2023, the public sector had to borrow £25.6 billion as it spent more than it collected from taxes and income. This large figure is £11.9 billion more than that of April 2022. The largest borrowing during the month of April is from April 2020, where larger figures than anticipated were required due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government is currently in the process of creating plans that encourage supermarkets to introduce voluntary price caps on food staples, a plan that has been created to supposedly reduce the effects that the cost-of-living crisis has on the UK’s population.
The Chief Executive of the BRC, Helen Dickinson, has warned against the creation of these plans by claiming that: “it is vital that Government does not hamper… by piling more costs onto retailers and forcing up the costs of goods even further”.
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