British shoppers are now grappling with renewed price hikes on their budgets in October after grocery price inflation climbed higher for the second month in a row, according to industry data on Tuesday.
Market researcher, Kantar revealed that the annual grocery price inflation was 2.3% in the four weeks up till November 3, having been 2.0% in the previous four-week period.
The data also revealed that prices were rising fastest in edible products like chilled soft drinks and chocolate confectionery, and plummeting fastest in commodities such as toothbrushes, household paper products and sparkling wine.
The supermarkets in UK also warned that tax rises in the new Labour government’s first budget in October, together with another increase in the national minimum wage, will be inflationary.
Going by the official data published last month, the overall UK inflation slowed to 1.7% in September. The Data for October will be published by November 20.
Kantar further reported that grocery sales rose 2.0% over the four week period year-on-year to 11.6 billion pounds ($14.9 billion) – the biggest sales month of the year so far.
The researcher also revealed that there were signs that some consumers were beginning their Christmas shopping earlier, citing that 648,000 shoppers have already bought a Christmas cake, while 14.4% of households bought mince pies in October.
