Darling Calls In The Supermarket Chiefs
In a move which many believe should have happened some time ago, Chancellor Alistair Darling has called supermarket chiefs to Downing Street for talks about the growing problem of food price rises in the UK. The meeting seems to have been prompted by a recent survey which forecast that the growing demand for agricultural products would see UK food prices rise by at least 5% a year for the next decade!
This is where it all starts to get rather confusing because if you go by the government’s inflation figure, we are still seeing prices rises of less than 4% when food costs alone are rising by between 4% and 6% this year. On one hand the authorities are happy to boast about inflation being under control, but on the other they claim the supermarkets need to do more to keep prices under control.
When you consider that the price of petrol has risen by at least 20% this year and food price increases are currently running at between 4% and 6% you really can see why the UK consumer is confused. If these two costs are running well above the published rate of inflation, what is falling in price to pull the overall figure lower?
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