Food prices are expected to keep rising, having already increased by 19.1% in the year to March, placing additional pressure on families…reports Asian Lite News
Downing Street is believed to be drawing up plans to encourage supermarkets to introduce voluntary price caps on food staples in a bid to help with the cost-of-living crisis.
The scheme would aim to get retailers charging the lowest possible amount for some basic products like bread and milk, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
A No 10 source said the plans are at “drawing board stage” and stressed they would not involve Government-imposed price controls.
A Treasury source told the Sunday Telegraph: “Food inflation is much more resilient and difficult to get rid of than we anticipated.”
Supermarkets are expected to be allowed to select which items they would cap and only take part in the initiative, modelled on similar agreement in France, on a voluntary basis, the paper reported.
It comes after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt backed interest rate hikes, even if they risk of plunging the UK into recession, in order to combat soaring inflation.
Though down from 10.1%, the Consumer Prices Index of inflation remains stubbornly high at 8.7%, while experts have warned that alarmingly expensive food is set to overtake energy bills as the “epicentre” of the cost-of-living crisis.
Food prices are expected to keep rising, having already increased by 19.1% in the year to March, placing additional pressure on families.
The Office for National Statistics said Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation fell to its lowest level for more than a year last month, at 8.7 per cent down from 10.1 per cent in March, as energy prices stabilised after sky-high rises a year ago.
But it was higher than forecast by economists, who had pencilled in a drop to 8.2 per cent in April, and more than the Bank of England had predicted just two weeks ago.
The figures showed food inflation at 19.3 per cent, down only slightly on March’s eye-watering 19.6 per cent and remaining close to the highest rate for more than 45 years.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt admitted last week that food prices are “still rising too fast”.
It comes after MPs have urged ministers last week to reveal if they are considering “controls” to stop supermarkets unfairly profiting from food inflation.
In the Commons, Conservative MP Michael Fabricant urged ministers to ensure “supermarkets don’t take unfair advantage and excess profits from wholesale prices”.
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