- Pace of UK food inflation falls to the lowest annual rate since November 2021
- Price of vegetables, hot drinks and soft drinks creeping up, the ONS said
The pace of UK food inflation fell to the lowest annual rate since November 2021 in March, official figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
Prices of household favourites like meat, crumpets, bread, cereals and chocolate biscuits all fell last month, helping bring down inflation to its lowest level in two-and-a-half years.
But, the cost of vegetables, hot drinks and soft drinks continued to edge up last month.
Separate data published by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit on Wednesday also claimed that cooking oil prices look set to reach record levels.
Overall, prices for food and non-alcoholic drinks increased by 4 per cent in the year to March, down from 5 per cent in the year to February, the ONS said.
Surging food inflation has been piling on pressure on millions of households faced with higher bills at the checkouts.
The ONS data showed that the rate consumer prices have been rising at fell to 3.2 per cent in the year to March, down from 3.4 per cent the previous month.
The easing pace of food inflation played the biggest role in helping bring down overall UK inflation last month, the ONS said.
The rate of food inflation growth eased for the 12th consecutive month from a high of 19.2 per cent in March 2023 – the highest annual rate seen for over 45 years.
Between February and March, food and non-alcoholic drink prices edged up 0.2 per cent, against an increase of 1.1 per cent in the same monthly period a year ago.
Meaty matters: Meat prices fell last month, new data from the ONS has revealed
Scrumptious: The price of crumpets edged down last month, according to the ONS
The ONS said: ‘Prices have been relatively high but stable since early summer 2023, rising by less than 2 per cent between May 2023 and March 2024.
‘This compares with a sharp rise of around 22 per cent seen between March 2022 and May 2023.’
Prices for bread and cereals rose by 0.2 per cent on the month, compared with an increase of 2.2 per cent a year ago, resulting in an annual rate in March of 4 per cent, which was the lowest since January 2022.
The ONS said prices of some bakery products, such as chocolate biscuits and crumpets, fell between February and March 2024, but rose between the same period a year ago.
Meat prices fell by 0.5 per cent between February and March this year, compared with an increase of 1.4 per cent a year ago.
This resulted in an annual rate of 3.1 per cent in the year to March, representing the lowest rate since November 2021.
The main downward effect behind the easing in meat inflation came from pork products, the ONS added.
The annual rate eased in eight of the 11 food and non-alcoholic drink classes analysed, the exceptions being vegetables, hot drinks, and soft drinks.
But here’s why cooking oil is soaring…
Separate data published by the ECIU on Wednesday claimed that oil prices look set to reach record levels.
According to the ECIU, UK yields of oil seed rape, which is used for domestic and commercial vegetable cooking oil, are projected to be as much as 38 per cent lower this year compared with 2023, after ‘extreme’ wet weather in winter and early spring hit crops.
Compared to the average yield since 2015, the reduction could be as much as 54 per cent, the ECIU suggests.
Tom Lancaster, land analyst at ECIU said: ‘We’re seeing a double whammy on cooking oil.
‘Be it Spanish olive oil or British vegetable oil, climate extremes are hurting crops and consumers are paying for it at the supermarket checkout.
‘Climate change has added £361 to food bills in the past couple of years and the failure of the British rapeseed oil harvest could see a hike in vegetable oil prices.’
