Your overview of economic and policy news with a focus on the food and consumer goods industry. Featuring the latest developments and guidance on the rising cost of living, the Ukraine crisis, labour shortages, COVID-19 and adapting to a new relationship with the EU. Growth Plan The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced his Growth Plan with the aim of stimulating growth and ta...

The government has announced an Energy Bill Relief Scheme to fix electricity and gas prices for all businesses, charities and public sector organisations for an initial six months from 1 October. Details of the scheme include: Wholesale prices will be fixed for all non-domestic energy customers at £211 per MWh for electricity and £75 per MWh The discount will be automatically ...

IGD has released its latest data on the UK convenience channel. It shows the performance of the sector as the country exits its two-year pandemic episode, while facing into the developing cost-of-living crisis. Market data for the first half of 2022, split by segment and category, shows the extent to which the channel has been permanently reshaped by Covid-19, while our forecast to 2027 gives ...

Your overview of economic and policy news with a focus on the food and consumer goods industry. Featuring the latest developments and guidance on the rising cost of living, the Ukraine crisis, labour shortages, COVID-19 and adapting to a new relationship with the EU. Food inflation continues to climb Food price inflation increased to 13.1% in August from 12.7% last month, the high...

The latest inflation data from the ONS reveals that “ all items ” inflation slowed marginally in August. Food and drink inflation continued to accelerate, however. ONS has released its latest inflation data covering August 2022. This shows that year-on-year inflation has declined slightly, recording 9.9% on the CPI index (compared to 10.1% last month) and 8.6% on the CPIH index (versus...

New ONS data continues to show structural challenges for the UK labour market. On the positive side, demand for labour is still high, despite a deteriorating economic situation. Unemployment was very low from May to July at 3.6%, the lowest rate since May to July 1974. The chart below shows that while redundancies remain low, the number of unfilled vacancies is very high at 1.26m de...

Real wage levels are continuing to fall, as wage growth fails to keep pace with inflation, adding to the financial stress of many households. Although wage growth is positive for workers (5.5% average annual pay growth), price increases are outstripping wages, resulting in a decline in the value of pay. The chart below reveals that once we adjust for the impact of RPI inflation, the...

Your overview of economic and policy news with a focus on the food and consumer goods industry. Featuring the latest developments and guidance on the rising cost of living, the Ukraine crisis, labour shortages, COVID-19 and adapting to a new relationship with the EU. New Defra Secretary of State Ranil Jayawardene, the newly appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rura...

The Government has announced the Energy Price Guarantee , which will limit the average annual household energy bill to £2,500 for two years. Businesses, charities and public sector organisations will be provided an equivalent level of support for six-months. The Energy Price Guarantee means that annual average household bills will be well below the previously-announced cap of £3,549 per...

IGD’s CEO, Susan Barratt, contributes to the BRC’s Retail Sales Monitor, providing insight on UK food and drink sales. Food and drink sales volumes spent the entire month of August in negative territory, with value sales propped up by the ongoing inflationary pressures that are being steadily fed through the supply chain. IGD’s latest Shopper Confidence Index data shows another record-br...