{"id":373686,"date":"2025-08-26T01:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T01:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/373686\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T01:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T01:04:09","slug":"rising-chocolate-and-butter-prices-drive-up-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/373686\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising chocolate and butter prices drive up rates"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rising cost of chocolate, butter and eggs has helped drive food price inflation to its highest in 18 months, a survey says.<\/p>\n

Food inflation hit 4.2% this month, compared with 4% in July, according to the British Retail Consortium latest shop price monitor. It is higher than at any time since March of last year, when it was 3.7%.<\/p>\n

The figure echoes separate recent data from the Office for National Statistics, which found the cost of everyday food items rising by a similar amount over the last year.<\/p>\n

Helen Dickinson, the BRC’s chief executive, said there was some respite for parents as the new academic year approaches, with cheaper clothing, books and stationery. <\/p>\n

Ms Dickinson said staples including butter and eggs had seen “significant increases” due to high demand, tightening supply and increased labour costs. <\/p>\n

“Chocolate also got more expensive as global prices of cocoa remain high owing to poor harvests,” she said. <\/p>\n

Poor cocoa harvests have been caused by climate change and crop disease<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“There was some respite for parents ahead of the new academic year, with lower prices for clothing, books, stationery, and computing.”<\/p>\n

Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at NIQ, which compiles the BRC’s shop price monitor, said the uptick reflected “several factors”.<\/p>\n

These included global supply costs, seasonal food inflation driven by weather conditions and a rise in underlying operational costs. <\/p>\n

“As shoppers return from their summer holidays, many may need to reassess household budgets in response to rising household bills,” he added.<\/p>\n

Increasing food prices added to increase in overall inflation in the year to July<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The latest official figures from the ONS put UK inflation – as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) – at 3.8%, up from 3.6% in June.<\/p>\n

According to the ONS, the cost of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 4.9% in the year to July, up from 4.5% in the year to June.<\/p>\n

Its data also showed an even starker long-term picture, with food prices increasing by around 37% in the five years to July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rising cost of chocolate, butter and eggs has helped drive food price inflation to its highest in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-373686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}