-UK Oct BRC Shop Price Index 1.5% y/y vs 1.0% y/y Sep
LONDON (MNI) – The long-anticipated rise in food prices has driven
shop price inflation up in October, the British Retail Consortium’s Shop
Price Index shows.
BRC-Nielsen data show shop prices rose 1.5% on the year in
October, up from just 1.0% in September. Food prices were up 0.4% on the
month and up 4.0% on the year, compared with 3.1% in September.
Record breaking wet weather this summer in the UK, and drought in
some areas overseas, have been creating pipeline inflation pressure in
the food sector and these BRC data show prices are now going up on the
high street.
The shop price index rose 0.2% on the month and the 1.5% rise on
the year was the largest since May. Non-food prices were flat on the
month and the year.
“After three months of stability, food is being hit by a
combination of poor harvests, rising production costs and previous
commodity cost rises working through,” Stephen Robertson, BRC Retail
Consortium Director General, said.
The rise in food prices was evident in both fresh food and ambient
food – that is food altered to extend shelf life.
Fresh food prices were up 0.4% on the month and up 3.8% on the year
and ambient up 0.5% on the month and up 4.2% on the year.
The BRC survey was conducted between Oct 8 and 12.
Some economists view the BRC’s Shop Price Index as a decent guide
to the official inflation figures.
George Buckley, Chief UK Economist at Deutsche Bank, in a note in
response to the September SPI said that “There has been a good
relationship between the BRC and CPI measures of inflation over recent
years – since 2007 the correlation has been 84%.”
The latest official numbers showed CPI dropped to 2.2% in September
but economists expect that to be the trough, with rising food prices and
energy bills set to put upward pressure on inflation in coming months.
-London newsroom 0044 207 862 7491; email: drobinson@marketnews.com
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