By David Milliken
LONDON (Reuters) - Cucumbers, olive oil and cheese topped Britain's inflation chart in March, while traditional fish and chips saw the biggest price rise for diners, according to a new price comparison tool released by the country's statistics office on Wednesday.
The cost of a cucumber was up a cool 52% in the 12 months to March, at an average of 84 pence ($1.05) each, while olive oil cost 49% more. The price of 'hard cheese' - a category which includes Swiss cheeses emmental and gruyere - rose 44% and the more popular cheddar cost an extra 42% at 9.29 pounds a kilo.
Sharp (OTC:SHCAY) rises in food prices have continued to squeeze consumers in Britain and across much of Europe, even as the average rate of inflation across goods and services as a whole has started to decline.
Britain's headline consumer price inflation rate in the year to March was 10.1%, down from a peak of 11.1% in October, but food and non-alcoholic drink prices were up an annual 19.1%, the most since 1977.
Higher energy prices since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 have raised agricultural production costs, and poor weather in Spain and Morocco - important sources of salad crops - have also pushed up the cost of fresh produce recently.
Almost half of Britons surveyed by the Office for National Statistics last month said they had cut back on food purchases.
For those Britons who can afford to eat out, the biggest percentage price rise was for a portion of takeaway fish and chips, which rose by 19% over the past year to an average of 9 pounds. Prices rose at the slowest pace at Indian and Chinese restaurants, where main courses to take away were up 10%.
The new price comparison tool covers more than 450 of the goods and services used to calculate monthly inflation data.
The biggest price fall was for kerosene used for domestic heating, which was 23% cheaper than a year earlier.
The Bank of England forecasts that the annual rate of inflation will fall to 4% by the end of this year, due to lower energy prices and the fact that the sharpest price rises will increasingly have been more than a year ago.
However, the BoE is widely expected to raise interest rates for a 12th meeting in a row next week.
The British Retail Consortium, which represents major supermarkets, said on Tuesday that falls in food prices were also on the horizon.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said at the start of 2023 that halving inflation was one of his main goals for the year.
($1 = 0.7989 pounds)