Food price inflation may cool as production costs ease

Food and manufacturing production costs in Britain fell in May for the first time in seven years, raising optimism that food prices inflation may be starting to cool.

According to the Lloyds Bank UK Sector Tracker, production costs fell for the first time since April 2016 as May registered 49.4 on the Tracker’s league table of input costs — the first time it had gone below the 50 mark denoting contraction.

That made for some big swings in Britain. The United Nations’ food prices index, which measures changes in global food commodity prices, declined by 2.6 per cent in May, driven by steep falls in the prices of vegetable oils, cereals and dairy products, and has fallen by 21.3 per cent since May last year.

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