Rising food prices will overtake energy costs as the driving force behind inflation this summer, a leading thinktank has predicted.
Resolution Foundation said rising grocery bills are showing no sign of slowing down having already rocketed 20% over the last year.
The thinktank blasted the government, suggesting politicians weren’t prepared for another year of food price rises or that “policy debates have caught up with the scale of what is going on.”
“Between March and September 2023, food prices are expected to contribute around 2 percentage points to inflation each month, while the contribution of energy prices is set to fall from 3 percentage points to less than 1,” the report, quoted in the Guardian, said.
Resolution Foundation said higher food prices since the 2019-20 financial year would cost the nation £28bn by the end of the summer, compared with an extra £25bn cost from higher energy prices.
Food prices often fall in the summer as UK crops replace more expensive imports from abroad. However, factory gate prices for milk, meat and other foods have accelerated by more than 50% year-on-year.
Official figures released next Wednesday are expected to show that the annual rate of inflation fell in April from the 10.1% recording in March.