Food prices rise at fastest rate on record

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3rd November 2022

Bite-sized business news from the UK and beyond

Good morning The cost of living crisis has led to many people cutting back on everything from groceries to streaming services, but not yet dating according to Match Group, the owner of several dating apps including Match, Hinge and Tinder. In the three months to September Tinder's revenue grew 6% and its paying users jumped 7%.

Today's stories

Food prices rise at fastest rate on record
Uber passengers fly past pre-pandemic levels

ECONOMY
Food prices rise at fastest rate on record

What happened?
Food prices rose a record 11.6% in October from the same month last year, according to the British Retail Consortium, with tea bags, milk and sugar all significantly more expensive.

How did we get here?
Retailers are being hit by higher costs for raw materials, fuel and transport, with the price being passed on to consumers. The war in Ukraine has also disrupted supplies of goods such as grain, oil and fertiliser from the region.

Overall UK consumer prices – which includes a wide range of goods and services including soaring energy bills - are rising at a rate of 10.1% - a 40-year high. The Bank of England is widely expected to raise interest rates by 0.75% to 3% tomorrow, in a bid to bring inflation back to its 2% target.

So what can be done?
While food inflation has been driven by many global factors, the BRC says the UK government can help by freezing business rates to prevent an additional £800m bill landing on the plates of retailers and in turn their customers in 2023.

Zooming out: Rising grocery bills adds to the growing list of burdens for Brits this winter. Households are also facing rising fuel costs, higher mortgage bills and the prospect of increased taxes to help plug a £50bn hole in the public finances.

Other stories to keep you in the loop

US interest rates see fourth 0.75 percentage point rise to tackle inflation
Sainsbury's to recruit 18,000 Christmas workers
UK battery firm staff agree to November pay cut
Mining giant execs used private jets to fly cash bribes to Africa, court hears
Shipping giant Maersk warns of looming global recession
Next posts higher sales despite pressure on shoppers
Zilch hits profitability as cash-strapped Brits turn to ‘pay later’ products
Twitter reportedly ready to cut about 3,700 employees

TECH
Uber passengers fly past pre-pandemic levels

What happened?
This week, as other tech heavyweights reported disappointing earnings, Uber announced one of its strongest results ever with passenger numbers surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

How did we get here?
After nearly two years of Covid related restrictions people are spending more time outside the home and using Uber to get there.

Widespread inflation has also pushed consumers to rethink their spending habits, curbing spending on goods to save up for services.

These converging forces pushed revenue up 72% to $8.3bn, comfortably beating analyst expectations. The win puts Uber finally closer to the elusive goal of profitability.

Uber still suffered a net loss in the quarter of $1.2bn, though that’s half of last year’s figure. Gross bookings, which include rideshare as well as food delivery and freight, increased by over a quarter to $29bn — and the company says it expects demand to remain elevated.

Zooming out: Uber is continuing to find new revenue streams. Inside the app, Uber’s started this month selling “journey ads” promoting a single brand for an entire trip. But recently, the company has started testing a feature sending some users push notifications of advertisements at seemingly random times.

Stat of the day

Since 2011 the foreign-born population in England and Wales has increased by 2.5m to 10m

Interesting links from around the web

Channel 4 at 40: the 40 best shows ranked
Why you should save like a pessimist and invest like an optimist
This year's highest-paid dead celebrities

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