Food inflation in January was 16.7% (see here for full story). in other words, food prices in UK this month are 16.7% higher than they were in January 2022. For an average family, this equates to almost £800 a year higher food bills. Although rises in other prices are slowing down, news like this is sure to mean that the Bank of England MPC will again raise its base rate of interest on Thursday.
Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund (IMF - a global institution set up to provide funds for economic emergencies) has just published their 2023 forecasts for economies around the world (see this BBC article). It names the UK as the only major advanced economy that will have a recession in 2023, forecasting growth to be -0.6% for the year. Even the Russian economy is predicted to grow in 2023.....
The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has said this shows the UK is subject to the same pressures that all other countries are under, but if so, why is the UK forecast to do worse than them? What individual factors is the UK experiencing that other similar countries are not?
Try to think of some. Later on in the week I will blog about what I think these factors are, and we can see if we agree.
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