Pet foods and rice drive cost of shopping up amid lockdown
We've all heard the stories about hand sanitizer being sold on Ebay for £40 a bottle, and toilet roll shortages caused by panic buying, but what has the real impact of coronavirus been on our cost of living?
The Office of National Statistics has published figures based on changes in real online prices of high-demand items during the lockdown, and some of the results are surprising.
The study shows that, on average, the cost of high-demand items has risen by an average of 1.8 per cent from March 30 to April 12. Now normally a near two-per-cent rise in the cost of any essential items in the space of just two weeks would set alarm bells ringing, but these are clearly not normal times. But what is in interesting is how this figure masks significant variations between different items.
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For, example, the 'dash for pasta' at the beginning of the outbreak has had little long-term impact, with prices of the Italian foodstuff actually falling over the two-week period. Pasta sauce actually showed the biggest price fall over the two-week period, falling by 4.5 per cent. Dried pasta was not far behind, down by 3.3 per cent.
Indeed, food prices were down across the board by an average of 1.5 per cent – at least for humans.
Pet foods on the other hand, showed the biggest price increase of all, rising by an eye-watering 8.4 per cent.
The initial surge in demand for hand cleaning product appears to have been shortlived, but prices still rose by 2.8 per cent over the period. Unsurprisingly, cough and cold medicines saw a price rise, up by 0.6 per cent, as did antibacterial hand-wipes, up by 0.8 per cent.
Spray cleaning products were up by 0.4 per cent, but it appears that consumers were switching to antibacterial surface wipes instead, which went up by 3.3 per cent. Nappies saw an increase in price of 3.4 per cent.
Household and hygiene items showed an average increase of 1.1 per cent over the period. Despite reports of panic-buying, toilet paper and tissues rose by just 0.2 per cent over the period, slightly less than kitchen rolls which went up by 0.3 per cent. There was no change to the price of ibuprofen, while the cost of paracetamol actually fell by 3.3 per cent.
While food prices were down on the whole, there were exceptions. Rice went up by 5.8 per cent, followed by tomato puree which increased by 3.5 per cent, while tinned beans were up 1.1 per cent.
The Office of National Statistics stressed that the figures were 'experimental', and should not be used as a substitute for official inflation statistics. It said food prices had proved to be largely stable over the four weeks since lockdown began, increasing by 0.4 per cent during the first week, but later falling back.
"Some item movements can be more volatile," said a spokesman. "For example, prices for rice fell by 11.7 per cent from week two to week three, but rose by 5.8 per cent from week three to week four, resulting in an overall price fall from week one to week four of 4.8 per cent.
