Data: Inflation hits highest point in a year driven by rising food prices
Inflation hit its highest point in almost a year, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), with prices pushed up by food inflation.
Inflation hit its highest point in almost a year in January, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), with prices pushed up by food inflation.
Headline inflation rose to 3% for the month, from 2.5% in December, while inflation for alcohol and tobacco was also boosted to 4.9%.
Inflation for clothing and footwear nudged up 0.7 percentage points to 1.8%, and furniture and household equipment prices were up from -0.3% to 0.5%.
BRC director of insight Kris Hamer said: “Headline inflation rose to its highest point in almost a year, driven by rising food inflation and air fares.
“While the inflation rate of clothing and footwear increased, extensive discounting by retailers saw prices decreasing significantly on the month.”
He continued: “The same was true for furniture and household equipment, which despite decreasing in price on the month, returned to inflation for the first time in ten months.
“Food inflation jumped significantly as retailers anticipated significant additional costs such as the changes to Employers’ National Insurance and increases to the National Living Wage, coming into force in April.”
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Hamer explained a rise in the headline rate of inflation to start the year was “likely a sign of things to come” due to the £7bn of additional costs facing the retail industry in 2025.
He also claimed prices were expected to rise across the board over the year.
“If the government wishes to keep inflation under control, which would ease the burden on consumers, it should mitigate the huge cumulative costs facing the retail industry,” he said.
“Speeding up business rates reform or delaying new packaging taxes would help ease the pressure on prices for the rest of 2025.”
It comes after inflation levels rose to their highest level since March in November, fuelled by a rise in petrol and clothes prices.
Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation increased to 2.6% in November, from 2.3% the previous month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
In November, the BRC warned the trend of falling shop prices could be coming to an end as retailers faced hiked costs following announcements made in the autumn Budget.
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