Prices for lower-cost groceries in the UK have not risen faster than average food prices, the National Statistics Office said on Monday in a new experimental survey.
The statistics agency was driven by the anti-poverty action Jack Monroe, who complained in January that supermarkets were raising the cost of value brands more than general inflation.
After erasing the web prices of seven supermarkets for a year in what it described as a “highly experimental” analysis, the ONS found no evidence to corroborate Monroe’s claims.
He found that some items, such as cheaper pasta, had risen in price by 50 percent and faster than standard pasta, but cheaper potatoes, cheese, chips, sausages, and pizza had dropped in price. during the year until April 2022.
Overall, the cheapest products on sale in supermarkets had risen by 6 percent in price over the past year, weighted by both the amount spent on different items and the retailers used, while general food inflation during the same period was 6.7 percent.
The ONS said: “The lowest priced items have increased their cost by about as much as the average prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages.”
Some of the cheaper items, such as pasta, rose sharply in late 2021, while others, such as sausages, had stable prices throughout the year. The ONS did not find clear patterns in cheap products.
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The agency added that there were limitations to the findings because it had to be based on products that appeared on retailers’ websites and the focus on the cheapest possible items restricted the number of price quotes and added volatility to the comparisons.
Monroe said on Twitter that the research supported his original view that published inflation figures underestimated rising prices for cheaper products. He added that he would later write about the topic on his website.
Jack Monroe, anti-poverty activist © Ken McKay / ITV / Shutterstock
While ONS research did not show that cheaper items were rising in price faster, the latest inflation figures showed that low-income households were affected by a higher inflation rate than higher-income households because low-income households spend more of their budgets on gas and electricity, and energy prices were 70 percent higher in April than a year earlier.
The think tank of the Institute of Fiscal Studies showed that, on average, this meant that inflation exceeded 10.9% for the tenth poorest part of the population while it was 7.9% for the richest tenth.
This difference is likely to become more pronounced in October, when the maximum price of gas and electricity is likely to rise again by 40%, according to Ofgem, the regulator.
But those with the lowest incomes will receive significant protection from the government, which will provide a one-time payment of £ 650 for all recipients of the benefits according to resources in July.