UK shop prices jumped in May

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 1, 2022

UK shop prices rose at their fastest rate in over a decade last month, new figures from the British Retail Consortium and NielsenIQ revealed this week. The rise came as retailers passed on the cost pressures they're facing in their own supply chains.

And the BRC warned that this isn't the end of price rises with more pain to come in the summer and beyond.

The main culprit was rising food prices. The new shop price index showed 2.8% retail price inflation in May, a figure that hasn't been seen since July 2011. But food prices were up 4.3%.

Non-food prices actually saw a slowdown in inflation to 2% in May from 2.2% in April. But that was a small crumb of comfort as they’re clearly still rising. 

We've already heard from a number of fashion companies saying they’re raising their prices. They include Next, Superdry, Dr Martens and Primark. But while some of them have increased prices already, others are planning to raise them next season. Primark has managed to hold prices down for SS22 but many AW22 item as it will cost its customers more.

And of course, even though non-food prices are rising at a slower rate than food is, the fact that food is a necessity and most fashion items aren't means that cash-strapped consumers making tough choices are likely to cut back on the latter.