Food prices rising at highest rate for 14 years
Pastor Dale Morgan
Food prices rising at highest rate for 14 years*
By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 3:56am GMT 11/12/2007
Food prices in the UK are accelerating at their highest rate for 14
years - and running at more than three times the rate of inflation,
official figures show.
Increasing wheat and dairy prices mean food factories are having to pay
6.6 per cent more for their raw ingredients than a year ago - the
highest annual rise since 1993, according to the Office for National
Statistics (ONS).
Food prices rising at highest rate for 14 years
Figures showed milk prices hitting their highest level for 11 years
These increases will inevitably be passed to consumers, and economists
warned that families would have to face even higher prices next year
while having to cope with other rising living costs as the credit crisis
starts to bite.
Ruth Lea, a leading economist and adviser to the Arbuthnot banking
group, said: "All sorts of things are hitting people next year, from
higher mortgage payments - despite last week's cut - to council taxes,
which are likely to be much higher. Then look what is happening at the
petrol pumps.
"Now you have pressure on food prices. They are all conspiring to
undermine people's disposable income."
The data from the ONS came as separate figures showed milk prices
hitting their highest level for 11 years.
The statistics, from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs, showed that farmers received 26.53p a litre for their milk in
October - a 51 per cent increase over the last six months.
A pint of milk now costs 40 pence, compared to 35 pence a year ago. A
loaf of Hovis bread has climbed from under £1 earlier this year to £1.12.