Food inflation could derail VAT increase September 12, 2010 FURTHER rises in food prices could cause annual inflation to accelerate to four per cent and endanger the government’s plans to hike VAT to 20 per cent in January, a leading City economist has warned. Henderson’s chief economist Simon Ward said that recent rises in global food commodity prices may boost annual CPI food inflation [...]
DO YOU EXPECT CPI INFLATION TO FALL BELOW 3 PER CENT IN AUGUST? September 12, 2010 SIMON HAYES | BARCLAYS CAPITAL “Contrary to the consensus, which expects a fourth consecutive monthly fall in the headline rate, we expect it to rise to 3.2 per cent from 3.1 per cent in July, largely reflecting a second consecutive large monthly rise in food prices.” PHILIP SHAW | INVESTEC “Against expectations, petrol prices appear [...]
Commodities drive surge in food inflation September 7, 2010 FOOD price inflation surged to its highest level in more than a year as rising commodity prices fed through into the supermarkets, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) will say today. The BRC’s monthly shop price index shows that annual food inflation increased to 3.8 per cent in August from 2.5 per cent in July, the [...]
Food inflation to benefit UK supermarkets September 6, 2010 UPWARD pressures on food prices appear to be here to stay. Global demand is increasing while droughts and fires last month hit harvests in Russia and Ukraine. Market researcher Kantar Worldpanel anticipates that UK grocery inflation will rise to an annualised 4 per cent by the end of 2010 from its current rate of 2 [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 1, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES MEAT PRICE SURGE FUELS FEARS OF FOOD INFLATION Global meat prices have hit a 20-year high as robust demand from emerging countries has coincided with a drop in production by exporters such as the US and Australia, fuelling concerns about rising food inflation. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s index of meat prices [...]
Selling prices accelerate at a record pace August 26, 2010 SHOP price inflation accelerated in August at its fastest rate since February 1992, the CBI revealed yesterday, raising the ugly spectre of persistently rising prices and creating even more of a headache for the Bank of England. In its August distributive trades survey, the business lobby reported that a net 58 per cent of firms [...]
Thai growth shrugs off the political turmoil August 24, 2010 THERE aren’t many economies that can experience three months of political protest without it denting growth, but that is exactly what HAS happened to Thailand. The protests, which lasted from March to May, saw the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship, otherwise known as the Red Shirts, try to oust prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. [...]
Popular Euro brands are a gateway to the emerging world August 23, 2010 THE consumer staples sector is usually considered fairly robust. The types of goods it produces – alcohol, food and household products –?tend to be immune to fluctuations in earnings and during periods of economic uncertainty should continue to perform relatively well. But that was not the case during the second quarter. While 71 per cent [...]
Blackcurrants are not the only fruit August 18, 2010 BANK of England governor Mervyn King may be warning of the dangers of destructive inflation but the minutes of the latest Bank meeting show that these concerns are tempered by a fear of slowing down what is now officially known as a choppy recovery. Destructive inflation, as far as I understand it, is when inflation [...]
ConAgra fined for inflating crude oil prices August 18, 2010 REGULATORS in America have fined a former division of food group ConAgra $12m (£7.7m) for artificially inflating the price of crude oil futures contracts above $100 a barrel, helping spark a rally that saw prices surge to a record $147. An oil trader working for ConAgra Trading Group (CTG) made a “vanity trade” in New [...]