For a while yet if in the future at all, pointing to an unstable global Food Supply Pressurised by the war in ukraine. Now the price of food in the uk rose by nearly 17. 5 in the year tojune, which was actually a fall from a high of just over 19 in the year to march, following an overall drop in the wholesale price of food which you can see here peaking when russia invaded ukraine last year. It has been trending downwards. But prices are still much higher than before the war and have started creeping up again. Lets discuss this with Kona Haque Head of reserach at commodities house ed and f man holdings. Good to have you on the programme. Do you agree with the Chief Economist at the Bank Of England that actually high food prices are here to stay . I think at least for the sure term we still have got some pressures that will keep prices elevated. The factors globally, the stocks, global stocks of the stocks, global stocks of the grains, the staples such as grains and oils, and sugar, the
I mean, these figures for trade are actually even worse than economists had anticipated in terms of exports. Its the weakest data since back in february 2020, when china, of course, was right in the thick of the pandemic. Why is this data so bad . Well, its mainly to do with chinas customers abroad. Theyre really struggling with high inflation, high Interest Rates. So theyre spending less money on chinese goods. And if youre a policymaker in beijing, well, its difficult to say what you should do about that. You cantjust force other countries to start buying more of your goods. But theres also more to contend with. If you look at the spending within china, thats also looking not very encouraging at the moment. Tomorrow, were expecting some more figures to be coming out, which will probably show Deflation Prices actually going down in china. Thats a bit more difficult to explain. But there are some people who think that chinas Zero Covid Policy went on for so long that customers just are
who criticised the banks for not passing on higher interest rates to savers, the italian government have repeatedly criticised the european central bank over rate hikes. the australian company that was meant to buy failed battery firm britishvolt has missed the deadline to pay for the business, casting doubt on the deal. filings from administrators ey show that the final instalment due in april, is still outstanding. ey said that the buyer, recharge industries, had therefore defaulted on its agreement to buy the business. recharge industries dispute that they are in default. here in the uk new figure s suggestjuly s wet weather caused a slowdown in retail sales with demand for clothing falling. overall retail sales grew 1.5% injuly, down from 2.3% the year before according to the british retail consortium. the group said rising interest rates were also squeezing shoppers budgets.
the italian government have repeatedly criticised the european central bank over rate hikes. the australian company that was meant to buy failed battery firm britishvolt has missed the deadline to pay for the business, casting doubt on the deal. filings from administrators ey show that the final instalment, due in april, is still outstanding. ey said that the buyer, recharge industries, had therefore defaulted on its agreement to buy the business. recharge industries dispute that they are in default. here in the uk, new figures suggest july s wet weather caused a slowdown in retail sales, with demand for clothing falling. 0verall retail sales grew 1.5% injuly, down from 2.3% the year before, according to the british retail consortium. that s it. i will be back a little