British Retail Consortium says shop price inflation has reached new heights

July saw the highest rate of shop price inflation since the British Retail Consortium’s index began in 2005, as heightened cost pressures continued to filter through to customers.

The Consortium says that rising production costs – from the price of animal feed and fertiliser to availability of produce, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine – coupled with exorbitant land transport costs, led food prices to rocket to 7 per cent. Some of the biggest rises were seen in dairy products, including lard, cooking fats and butter.

Meanwhile, non-food prices were hit by rising shipping prices, production costs and continued disruption in China.a