Inflation reached a 10-year high in the 12 months to November 2021 with supply chain disruption and the price of raw materials contributing to rising food prices for consumers.
Increasing from 4.2% in the 12 months to October, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) hit its highest level since September 2011. Supply chain issues are among the factors cited for the increase, along with elevated input prices for food materials.
The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 4.6% in the same period, driven primarily by the increasing cost of motor fuel and energy bills. Food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed 0.11 percentage points as prices rose by 1% this year, but fell by 0.2% a year ago. The largest upward contributions came from the sugar, jam, syrups, chocolate and confectionery categories.
Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the ONS, said that a rise in food prices had helped to drive inflation up in the last month, with the cost of goods produced by factories and raw material prices at their highest rate for at least 12 years.
In terms of producer inflation, output prices for food products saw a 0.6% increase in November, with a 12-month rate change of 4.5%. Although input prices for home food materials decreased by 0.2% month-on-month, this sector has risen by 4.4% in the last year. The cost of imported food materials showed growth of 3.2% in November.
