The latest August inflation numbers – especially for food – from the U.K. and Germany underscore the same explosive, out-of-control pattern reported earlier this week for the United States. In the U.K., grocery costs climbed by 12.4% in August, year-on-year, market research firm Kantar reported on Sept. 13.
“It seems there’s no end in sight to grocery inflation, as the rate at which food and drink prices are increasing continues to accelerate,” Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said. Milk rose by 31%, butter by 25%, and dog food (which humans are driven to eat in hard times) by 29%.
In Germany, August inflation accelerated to 8.8%, the highest level in nearly 50 years, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Tuesday. In July the rate had been 8.5%. “The main reason for the high inflation still is price rises for energy products and food,” said Destatis President Georg Thiel. Food prices soared by 16.6%, nearly double the overall inflation rate and accelerating for the sixth month in a row. Energy product prices were up 35.6% year-on-year, with heating oil prices more than doubled, while natural gas prices surged by 83.8%.
As for the U.S., the Bureau of Labor Statistics report released earlier this week showed that overall prices rose by 8.3% in August, year-on-year, with the price of gasoline rising 25.6%, the price of electricity rising 15.8% and the price of food rising 11.4% – the biggest jump since 1979.
