By David Milliken
LONDON, May 3 (Reuters) - Cucumbers, olive oil and
cheese topped Britain's inflation chart in March, while
traditional fish and chips saw the biggest price rise for
diners, according to a new price comparison tool released by the
country's statistics office on Wednesday.
The cost of a cucumber was up a cool 52% in the 12 months to
March, at an average of 84 pence ($1.05) each, while olive oil
cost 49% more. The price of 'hard cheese' - a category which
includes Swiss cheeses emmental and gruyere - rose 44% and the
more popular cheddar cost an extra 42% at 9.29 pounds a kilo.
Sharp rises in food prices have continued to squeeze
consumers in Britain and across much of Europe, even as the
average rate of inflation across goods and services as a whole
has started to decline.
Britain's headline consumer price inflation rate in the year
to March was 10.1%, down from a peak of 11.1% in October, but
food and non-alcoholic drink prices were up an annual 19.1%, the
most since 1977.
Higher energy prices since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in
February 2022 have raised agricultural production costs, and
poor weather in Spain and Morocco - important sources of salad
crops - have also pushed up the cost of fresh produce recently.
Almost half of Britons surveyed by the Office for National
Statistics last month said they had cut back on food purchases.
For those Britons who can afford to eat out, the biggest
percentage price rise was for a portion of takeaway fish and
chips, which rose by 19% over the past year to an average of 9
pounds. Prices rose at the slowest pace at Indian and Chinese
restaurants, where main courses to take away were up 10%.
The new price comparison tool covers more than 450 of the
goods and services used to calculate monthly inflation data.
The biggest price fall was for kerosene used for domestic
heating, which was 23% cheaper than a year earlier.
The Bank of England forecasts that the annual rate of
inflation will fall to 4% by the end of this year, due to lower
energy prices and the fact that the sharpest price rises will
increasingly have been more than a year ago.
However, the BoE is widely expected to raise interest rates
for a 12th meeting in a row next week.
The British Retail Consortium, which represents major
supermarkets, said on Tuesday that falls in food prices were
also on the horizon.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said at the start of 2023 that
halving inflation was one of his main goals for the year.
($1 = 0.7989 pounds)
(Reporting by David Milliken
Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
