nick, thank you, nick eardley. the supermarket asda is expanding its growth into the convenience food sector. it s agreed to buy eg group, adding another 350 petrol stations to hundreds it has already. so what will this mean for customers? our business correspondent emma simpson is here. asda is the uk s third biggest supermarket, with over 640 stores. it s now buying the uk and irish operations of the petrol forecourt operator eg group. that means, in one fell swoop, it s going to add another 350 petrol stations and own 1,000 fast food locations. both of these businesses are co owned by the billionaire issa brothers from blackburn. under the deal, this new combined group will have revenues of around £30 billion a year and employ around 170,000 people. i asked the chairman of asda and eg group, stuart rose, what it would mean for shoppers.
we start today with the problem staring at us every time we go to the shops and look at our bank balance: the cost of living crisis. today we ll get the latest estimate of inflation here in the uk for the month of may. we ll go back to april to set the scene: inflation that month was running at 9%, the highest rate here in the uk for a0 years. looking into the future, the bank of england has warned inflation might exceed 11% later this year as the prices of fuel and food put pressure on household budgets. the response by the bank of england has been to raise the cost of borrowing. rates have recently been increased from 1% to 1.25%, the fifth consecutive rise, pushing them to the highest level in 13 years. our business correspondent, emma simpson, has been speaking to the chairman of the supermarket chain asda, lord stuart rose he told her that his customers have been