Soaring food cost has pushed UK inflation into double digits for the first time since 1982, with prices continuing to rise at their fastest rate for more than 40 years.
Inflation in UK, has continued to push the prices of foodstuff higher than expected and at a rate that has never been experienced in the last 40 years.
Inflation hit 10.1% in the 12 months to July, going up from 9.4% in June, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
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Soaring living costs are eating into household budgets, with prices rising faster than wages.
The Bank of England has said inflation could peak at more than 13% this year.
Energy, petrol and diesel costs are also contributing to inflation. But food and non-alcoholic drinks were the largest contributor to rising prices in July, according to the ONS.
The price of bread, cereals, milk, cheese and eggs rose the fastest, while the cost of vegetables, meat and chocolate were also higher.
Prices also rose for other staples, such as toilet rolls, pet food and toothbrushes.
Transport costs were another big contributing factor, with air fares and international rail tickets particularly increasing. The price for package holidays also went up, as demand increased.
The rise in global food commodity prices, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has been one of the factors pushing up prices at supermarket tills.
The war has disrupted supplies from the two countries, which are major exporters of goods such as sunflower oil and wheat.
Some commodities, especially grain and edible oils, have eased substantially, but there is typically a time lag of around six months before that feeds through to prices on the shelves.
While the Bank of England and others have forecast that inflation would exceed 10%, most economists didn’t expect it to happen just yet – with the consensus forecast at 9.8%.
Driving up the average rise between June and July were food prices – everything from bread and cereals, up by an annual 12.4%, to milk cheese and eggs, up 19.4%, to oils and fats, up 23.4%.
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The causes are familiar: the reopening of the global economy post-pandemic, which meant the supply of goods like fuel couldn’t keep up with surging demand, made worse by the war in Ukraine, which further disrupted the supply of goods like gas, wheat and cooking oil.
That’s led to a surge in output prices – prices of goods at the factory gate – which rose by 17.1%, faster than they have since 1977.
The figures offer just a glimmer of hope from the petrol forecourts – where prices began to fall a little in July.
The inflation rate is expected to rise further in October, when higher energy bills hit.
