Soaring food inflation erases effect of falling non-food prices December 4, 2012 ANNUAL food price inflation accelerated in the year to November, but a return to deflation in some non-food prices provided a counterweight to keep overall shop price inflation steady. Food was 4.6 per cent more expensive in November than it was a year before, according to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), an inflation rate 0.6 [...]
Flood-hit UK to face record wheat prices December 3, 2012 CROP failures in Britain and globally are pushing grain prices to record highs. Floods in the UK have forced it to depend on foreign grain imports. The country is expected to import more than 2m tons of wheat in the 2012-2013 season – a 30 year high. But prices have also been driven up by [...]
Pub meals help Mitchells and Butlers as it faces muted sales November 27, 2012 PUBS and restaurants group Mitchells & Butlers yesterday reported a rise in full-year profit but like-for-like sales in the first eight weeks of the new year were flat, sending its shares down as much as five per cent. The owner of All Bar One, Harvester and O’Neills chains said alcohol duty increases and food price [...]
Cranswick profits jump as pig prices passed on to customers November 26, 2012 CRANSWICK, the sliced meat and sausage-maker, yesterday reported a 21 per cent rise in half-year profits as it succeeded in passing higher pork prices onto its customer. The Yorkshire-based group warned last month that UK prices were at a three-month high and would continue rising because of high livestock feed prices and the introduction of [...]
Bank minutes to show appetite for QE as public borrowing is revealed November 18, 2012 MINUTES from the Bank of England’s November monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting will this week give further clues about the appetite for further quantitative easing (QE) and the extent to which the recent rise in inflation has affected the committee’s decision making. The release is due out on Wednesday, along with public sector net borrowing [...]
Inflation flies further away from 2pc target November 13, 2012 CONSUMER price inflation rocketed higher in October, due to tuition fee hikes and booming food prices, data revealed yesterday. The jump defied Bank of England expectations that inflation would fall towards its two per cent target. This jump might have been a factor in the Bank’s decision to hold fire on more quantitative easing (QE) [...]
Failure to control inflation damages Britain’s recovery November 13, 2012 THE Bank of England sets interest rates to keep inflation low to preserve the value of your money,” reads the puff on the front page of the Bank’s website. But it’s done a poor job recently. The 2.7 per cent annual rise in the consumer prices index (CPI), announced yesterday, is better than last September’s [...]
UK inflation jumps to 2.7 per cent November 13, 2012 The consumer prices measure of inflation jumped to 2.7 per cent in October, up from 2.2 per cent in September, with the hike in university fees behind the rise. Aside from university tuition fees, price rises in food and transport also contributed to the increase, according to official figures from the Office for National Statistics. [...]
Analysts expect statistics will show inflation rose in October November 11, 2012 INFLATION jolted back up in October, analysts predicted over the weekend, rising above the Bank of England’s target. A one-off hike in tuition fees, combined with air fare increases – typically volatile – and steadily rising food prices will drive inflation on the consumer price index (CPI) above September’s 2.2 per cent, analysts forecast. “Tuesday’s [...]
BRC sees retail sales dip ahead of Christmas as food price inflation rises November 6, 2012 SHOP price inflation climbed in October, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealed yesterday, as food prices boomed. Shop prices rose 1.5 per cent in the year to October, the data showed, up from the one per cent growth in the year to September. This increase was driven by a four per cent climb in food [...]