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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Graeme Wearden

Camelot loses legal bid to stop National Lottery licence handover; UK petrol price at record – as it happened

IG Inflation Recession United States Bank of England British Retail Consortium ECB NielsenIQ United Kingdom
A National Lottery sign.
A National Lottery sign. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

Key event

Time to wrap up....

Camelot’s legal fight to avoid losing its licence to operate the national lottery has failed but the Canadian-owned company will press ahead with a damages claim that could cost the government £600m.

The company launched a high court challenge in April, claiming the Gambling Commission had got its decision “badly wrong” by naming the rival firm Allwyn as its “preferred applicant” for the next 10-year licence to operate the national lottery.

The lawsuit forced a temporary suspension of the licence award, causing a delay that could have “severe consequences for the national lottery and good causes”, said the commission.

Vladimir Potanin, known as the “Nickel King” and Russia’s second richest person, has become the latest Russian oligarch to be subjected to sanctions by the UK as ministers target “Putin’s inner circle”.

The government and National Grid have played down concerns that Britain may stop supplying gas to mainland Europe if the country is hit by extreme shortages in the coming months.

There’s no relief in cost of living crisis, with petrol prices hitting records yesterday.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said:

“We can see absolutely no rhyme or reason why average forecourt prices are still going up, given that the wholesale price of both fuels has been falling for weeks.

Drivers up and down the country have a right to know why they’re having to pay what they are for fuel when the costs to retailers right now are so much less they were a few weeks ago.

Shoppers have been hit with the highest increase in prices in over 13 years:

Britons have also suffered a rise in authorised push payment fraud (APP), where victims are tricked into making a payment.

Overall, more than £1.3bn was stolen by con artists last year, figures from UK Finance reveal.

Nottingham has been named Britain’s broadband “outage capital”.

Across the UK, almost 11 million consumers have suffered a broadband blackout lasting more than three hours over the last year (no fun if you’re trying to work from home).

The chief executive of Ofgem has insisted that bills will not rise for consumers, as the regulator laid out plans to plough £20bn into upgrading Great Britain’s regional electricity networks

British defence manufacturer Meggitt has moved closer to being acquired by US industrial conglomerate Parker Hannifin, after the UK government has signalled it is likely to accept the £6.3bn deal.

Whitbread, the owner of the Premier Inn hotel chain, has appointed the current boss of Domino’s Pizza to replace Alison Brittain.

BT has requested an extension to the UK government’s deadline for removing Huawei equipment from its network, following a ban on using the Chinese company’s equipment because of data security concerns.

MPC-appointee Dhingra: room for very gradual appraoch to rate rises

While Jerome Powell was sounding hawkish in Sintra, the Bank of England’s next new policymaker was taking a more dovish line in parliament.

Swati Dhingra, who is due to join the Monetary Policy Committee in August, told MPs the Bank of England should move very gradually to tighten monetary policy.

Dhingra argued there was “some room for a very gradual approach here”, given signs that the economic slowdown is much closer than previously thought.

Dhingra, an associate professor of economics at the LSE, also warned that the UK faces significant challenges, citing the risk of worsening global conditions on top of the cost of of living crisis.

Dhingra will replace the hawkish Michael Saunders on the MPC. which has raised interest rates five times in a row.

She warned that inflationary pressures will continue “in the short term” due to high energy prices, global supply disruptions, and “the accumulation of growth constraints such as the shortfall in business investment and increased inactivity in the labor market.”

Dhingra also cautioned that many of the sources of the problems pushing up UK inflation and hitting consumer confidence “are expected to continue or even accelerate in the short term.”

America’s top central banker has warned that the clock is ticking to bring down inflation before public expectation of higher prices become embedded.

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell told the European Central Bank’s conference in Sintra that it was important to avoid persistent inflation.

Powell explained:

“The clock is kind of running on how long will you remain in a low-inflation regime ...

The risk is that because of the multiplicity of shocks you start to transition into a higher inflation regime and our job is to literally prevent that from happening and we will prevent that from happening,”

That risk was more serious than the danger of slowing the economy with higher interest rates, Powell insisted:

“I would not agree that is the bigger risk. The bigger mistake would be to fail to restore price stability.”

Here are more key points:

Allwyn has welcomed today’s High Court ruling lifting the suspension on the transfer of the National Lottery licence.

Allwyn says:

“Today’s ruling is good news for The National Lottery; it enables the Gambling Commission to move forward to award Allwyn the Fourth National Lottery Licence.

Mrs. Justice O’Farrell was clear that the public interest, and in particular the impact on good causes, was a strong factor in her judgment. Her decision paves the way for the transition to Allwyn, the winner of the Fourth Licence Competition, serving The National Lottery as its operator from February 2024; kickstarting a transformation programme that brings an enhanced games portfolio, new technologies, provisions for safer play, and a substantial increase in returns to good causes.

We look forward to the Gambling Commission moving to Award and to Camelot working constructively with us to ensure a smooth handover for the benefit of players and good causes alike.”

Morrisons sales drop in cost of living crisis, but fuel sales jump

Grocery sales at UK supermarket Morrisons have dropped in the last quarter, as the cost of living crisis hit shoppers.

But rising income from fuel sales has cushioned the blow.

In a trading update, Morrisons reported that like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, fell 6.4% year-on-year in the three months to 1 May.

The chain said the trading environment has been very challenging, due to ongoing inflationary pressure and increasingly subdued consumer sentiment (consumer confidence has hit a near 50-year low).

Morrisons did get a boost from Mother’s Day and Easter, though.

And petrol and diesel sales were up 54% year-on-year, reflecting increased demand and rising prices at the pumps.

That meant total like-for-like revenues were actually 2.5% higher than a year ago, up £115m to £4,587m.

Morrisons says:

This increase was primarily due to recovery of fuel sales, which increased by 54%, partly offset by a decline in Supermarket LFL in a normalising grocery market environment post Covid.

David Potts, Morrisons CEO, said it was a “very fragile and difficult consumer environment”:

This quarter traded over a period of significant Covid restrictions last year when travel and hospitality were both severely limited. As those two activities returned to more normal patterns this year, we saw very strong growth in fuel sales but a step back in grocery.

“Retail like-for-like sales in the quarter were also impacted by the discounts we offered last year to NHS staff, teachers, farmers and Blue Light cardholders, as a thank-you for their amazing work on behalf of the nation through Covid.

“In April we launched one of our biggest ever price cut campaigns which included over 25% of our entry level products. But these are serious times and there is further serious work ahead of us as we help customers and colleagues face into the highest inflation for 40 years.

Updated

Over in Germany, inflation has fallen for the first time sine January as the Berlin government’s cost of living package kicked in.

German headline inflation fell to 7.6% year-on-year in June, up from 7.9% in May (which was the highest since reunification).

On an EU-harmonised basis, it dropped to 8.2% from 8.7%.

Carsten Brzeski of ING says this shows that it is currently governments and not central banks that can bring down inflation.

Brzeski adds:

Don’t be mistaken, this is not the start of the end but rather a government-induced temporary relief.

The support package include a one-off energy tax-relief payment of €300 ($330), a three-month reduction in the tax on fuel and a three-month reduction in the cost of monthly tickets for public transport.

BT has requested an extension to the UK government’s deadline for removing Huawei equipment from its network, following a ban on using the Chinese company’s equipment because of data security concerns.

BT, which has said the removal of Huawei equipment from its core network where personal data is processed would cost it £500m, has lodged a request with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

More here.

Britain breaches WTO rules by extending steel tariffs

The UK government has extended a package of tariffs and quotas on five steel products by two years to protect local steelmakers, in a move that will breach international trade rules.

Trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan told parliament the safeguards would help defend a strategic industry and that British steel producers could face “serious injury” were the measures not maintained.

Trevelyan told MPs that the decision...

“departs from our international legal obligations under the relevant WTO agreement, as relates to the five product categories.”

However, “from time to time, issues may arise where the national interest requires action to be taken”, Trevelyan added.

Our Brexit correspondent Lisa O’Carroll has more:

Tariffs on steel imports from China and other countries are to be extended for another two years, the UK government has announced.

It said it was necessary to protect the domestic steel industry from a flood of cheap imports.

The move comes despite reservations expressed by Boris Johnson’s former ethics adviser Christopher Geidt that steel tariffs could put Britain at risk of breaching World Trade Organization rules.

He cited the issue as a matter of concern in his letter of resignation 12 days ago.

Camelot loses legal battle to keep hold of National Lottery

Camelot’s hopes of keeping running the National Lottery for the next decade have suffered a heavy blow in the High Court.

A judge has ruled that control of the draw can be passed to its rival, new operator Allwyn Entertainment, who were awarded the contract earlier this year.

The court agreed to lift the suspension preventing it from beginning the licence transfer, which was put in place when Camelot launched legal action in April, challenging the decision to pick Allwyn as the firm to run the lottery from 2024.

The Gambling Commission said:

“We made clear that disrupting the implementation of Allwyn’s plans would present potentially severe consequences for the National Lottery and good causes.

“It also risked the National Lottery not operating to its full potential at the start of the fourth licence.”

The commission added that following the court’s decision its “priority is to continue to work to implement our decision and ensure a seamless and timely transition to the next licence, for the benefit of participants and good causes”.

Despite the High Court decision, Camelot’s legal challenge against the licence decision will continue. The commission said it will be “preparing for trial of the various claims”.

A spokesman for Camelot said:

“While disappointing, this judgement only addresses whether or not the Enabling Agreement can be signed while our case is heard.

The judgment on whether the Gambling Commission correctly and lawfully awarded Preferred Applicant status is being dealt with separately. We will take some time to consider our next steps and continue to believe that we have a very strong legal case.

In the meantime, we remain dedicated to maximising returns to Good Causes, building on our record performance over the past two years.”

Today’s court’s decision to allow control to pass to Allwyn will make it harder to overturn the decision.

Camelot, and the media tycoon Richard Desmond who also lost out in the bidding process, can still bring legal challenges but would effectively be suing for damages, rather than for the decision to be overturned.

One source suggested in May that the combined damages claim could cost the regulator up to £800m.

Updated

Great Britain will stop supplying gas to mainland Europe if hit by shortages

Great Britain plans to stop supplying gas to mainland Europe if the country is hit by extreme shortages in the coming months, it has emerged.

National Grid could cut off gas pipelines to the Netherlands and Belgium under emergency measures as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine puts pressure on global energy supplies.

Shutting off the pipelines – known as interconnectors – would be part of a four-step plan that would include cutting supplies to big industrial users and asking consumers to reduce their household consumption, the Financial Times reported.

Ministers have been scrambling to shore up Great Britain’s energy supplies amid a squeeze exacerbated by Russia’s invasion on Ukraine. Russia has also ramped up pressure on other European nations by cutting their gas supplies in response to a rush to fill up European storage caverns before the winter.

Palladium has jumped too, up 5%, after mining tycoon Vladimir Potanin was sanctioned by the UK:

Updated

Nickel jumps after Potanin sanctioned

The nickel price jumped by up to 9% following the news that the UK has sanctioned Vladimir Potanin.

Potanin is known as Russia’s “Nickel King”; he owns around a third of Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and refined nickel.

Updated

Britain has sanctioned oligarch Vladimir Potanin, in its latest round of measures over the Ukraine war.

The UK said Potanin, a former Russian deputy prime minister, was Russia’s second-richest man and a “key supporter of the Kremlin”, who has been acquiring assets since the Ukraine war began.

“Potanin continues to amass wealth as he supports Putin’s regime, acquiring Rosbank, and shares in Tinkoff Bank in the period since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

Potanin helped to devise Russia’s infamous “loans for shares” programme in the 1990s, in which the Moscow government sold stakes in state industries in in return for loans to shore up its finances.

Potanin, one of the small group of of oligarchs who met with Putin as the invasion of Ukraine began, has also played a big role in American arts:

Anna Tsivileva, Vladimir Putin’s cousin, who is the president of Russian coal mining company JSC Kolmar Group, has also been sanctioned.

A UK government spokesperson said:

As long as Putin continues his abhorrent assault on Ukraine, we will use sanctions to weaken the Russian war machine. Today’s sanctions show that nothing and no one is off the table, including Putin’s inner circle.

Petrol price 'inexplicably' hits new record

Motoring groups have blasted fuel retailers after UK petrol prices hit fresh record highs.

The average price of a litre of petrol rose to 191.24p on Tuesday, up from 191.10 on Monday, data from Experian Catalyst shows. That means it costs over £105 to fill a typical 55-litre family car.

Diesel rose to 199.01 pence per litre, close to Saturday’s record high, as the £2 per litre mark moves closes.

The RAC says this latest rise is ‘inexplicable’, given wholesale prices have been dropping since earlier this month.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said:

“We can see absolutely no rhyme or reason why average forecourt prices are still going up, given that the wholesale price of both fuels has been falling for weeks. Drivers up and down the country have a right to know why they’re having to pay what they are for fuel when the costs to retailers right now are so much less they were a few weeks ago.

Yesterday, chancellor Rishi Sunak promised to consider another cut to fuel duty, on top of the 5p/litre cut in the Spring Statement.

Williams welcomes the suggestion of more support for hard-pressed drivers:

A cut to the price of forecourt fuel really can’t come soon enough.

If it’s a further fuel duty cut that the Chancellor decides on, it’s absolutely vital that this is passed on in full immediately by retailers to give drivers some respite from these historic high prices. It’s also vital the Government monitors the wholesale market and closely scrutinises retailer margins.”

The Competition and Markets Authority has been conducting a “swift, high-level review” of the fuel sector, and should report back on July 7th.

Petrol retailers have denied accusations of profiteering, saying they have just been passing on higher prices charged by refineries.

The AA says drivers are being “taken for fools” by retailers, and continues to push for a larger cut to fuel duty.

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, says:

“With the Prime Minister and the Chancellor talking openly about the prospect of cutting fuel duty further, drivers need hear less talk and see more action.

“An additional 10p cut in duty, which the AA called for weeks ago, will not only help ease the pressure at the pumps but keep prices in supermarket aisles down too. Until this happens, household budgets across the country will continue being squeezed.”

Updated

Whitbread names Domino's boss as next CEO

Just in: hospitality group Whitbread has appointed the UK boss of pizza firm Domino’s as its new chief executive.

Whitbread has announced that Dominic Paul will succeed Alison Brittain, who has “decided to retire from full time executive life at the end of the financial year 2023” after a seven-year stint as CEO.

Whitbread says:

Dominic is an experienced senior executive, with a very strong operational and commercial record in the travel, leisure, and hospitality sector, and most recently served as CEO of Domino’s Pizza Group plc.

Whitbread must wait until January 2023, though -- with Domino’s holding Paul to his six-months’ contractual notice.

Paul was previously the boss of Costa Coffee, which Whitbread owned until it was sold to Coca-Cola for £3.9bn in 2019.

He says:

Returning to Whitbread as CEO is the only job I would have left for at this stage, and in the meantime, I’m looking forward to working closely with everyone at Domino’s over the next six months to ensure a smooth transition.

Updated

The UK government has signalled it is likely to accept the £6.3bn takeover of the British defence manufacturer Meggitt, the second deal by a US buyer to receive a green light in a week.

The American industrial conglomerate Parker Hannifin told the City this morning it expected to complete the takeover within the next two months after receiving assent from the UK business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng.

Meggitt, based near Coventry, makes wheels, materials and electronics for the F-35 fighter jet and the A400M transporter, both used by the UK military, as well as civilian aircraft made by Airbus and Boeing. Meggitt employs about 2,300 workers in the UK and 9,000 globally.

The cost of living crisis in Spain has deepened, with inflation hitting its highest in decades.

Spanish 12-month inflation rose to 10.2% in June, the first time it has surpassed 10% since April 1985.

That’s up from 8.7% in the previous month, preliminary data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed, and rather higher than the 9% forecast.

On an EU-harmonised basis, Spanish inflation hit 10%, a record.

Economy Minister Nadia Calvino told parliament on Wednesday.

“The news of the last few weeks is not positive ... Russia’s gas and oil export cuts are accelerating rising energy prices.”

The surge in commodity inflation and supply problems have hammered British cleaning products maker McBride.

The Oven Pride maker, reported this morning that its bank had waived debt covenant tests until September, as the loss-making group grapples with rising costs and supply chain challenges.

McBride, which has an available liquidity of about £75m as of June 28, has agreed to maintain liquidity of at least £40m and to refrain from paying dividends in order to get the waiver.

McBride told the City:

‘We are fully appreciative of the ongoing support that the banking group have and are continuing to give the group through this period of uncertainty caused by macroeconomic factors which have resulted in rapid and unprecedented rises in input costs and ongoing global supply chain challenges.

Last summer, McBride said there had been an “extraordinary” rise in the cost of raw materials such as cardboard and solvents, as a shortage of lorry drivers also hit distribution.

Ofgem pledges bills won't rise through £21bn electricity upgrade plan

The chief executive of Ofgem has insisted that bills will not rise for consumers amid plans to plough £20bn into upgrading Great Britain’s regional electricity networks.

The energy regulator set out a £20.9bn package to upgrade the grids this morning, which includes £2.7bn of upfront funding to boost capacity.

Distribution network operators have been asked to boost the resilience and reliability of supply during extreme weather events, such as Storm Arwen. More than a million homes lost power last November as the storm wreaked havoc, bringing down trees and electricity lines.

Ofgem said the upgrade would also allow consumers to be given more control to save money through regularly updated prices for peak and off-peak demand.

More here:

Updated

UK victims lost £1.3bn in 2021 amid surge in online fraud

More than £1.3bn was stolen by con artists last year, figures reveal, with authorised push payment fraud (APP), where victims are tricked into making a payment, rising sharply as pandemic restrictions eased.

The amount lost to APP fraud hit £583.2m in 2021, a 39% increase compared with 2020, according to the research from the banking industry organisation UK Finance.

It found there were 195,996 incidents of APP fraud in the UK last year, up 27% on the previous year, as people worked more from home, spent longer online and did more internet shopping which made victims more susceptible to such scams.

Nearly 40% of APP fraud losses were due to impersonation scams, where criminals pretend to be from a trusted contact to trick victims into moving their money, with an estimated £214.8m stolen using this method in total.

Here’s the full story

And here’s our guide on how to avoid falling victim to online, email and phone scams

An iPhone displaying the Moonpig logo.

Online greetings card group Moonpig has also been hit by a post-lockdown drop in trading.

Revenues at Moonpig tumbled 17.3% in the year to 30th April, to £304m, as customers returned to the high street after shops reopened.

This knocked adjusted earnings down by 19% (although pre-tax profits rose 25% on a reported basis).

Shares have dropped 6% to 230p. They are down 38% this year, having floated on the stock market in February 2021 at 350p each.

CEO Nickyl Raithatha insists the company can “adapt with speed and agility” to changing consumer behaviours

Moonpig Group has delivered an enduring uplift in revenue over the past two years, with a step-change in the size of our customer base, and with each of our customers purchasing more often than before.

Sales have dropped at UK discount retailer B&M, as the pandemic spending boost faded.

Like-for-like sales at B&M’s UK stores fell 9.1% over the last three months, compared with a year ago, taking its first-quarter group revenues down 2.2%.

B&M’s sales soared in the lockdown, as it was able to remain open because it sold essential items such as food and hardware. It reported last year that bestselling items included DIY, gardening kit, toys and Christmas items.

European shares have dropped in early trading, as fears about a global recession overshadowed recent optimism about China reopening

The continent-wide Stoxx 600 index is down 0.75%, following last night’s losses on Wall Street after that gloomy U.S. consumer confidence data.

Germany’s DAX is leading the declines, down 1.1%.

In London, property developers British Land (-4.6%) and Land Securities (-4%) are the top fallers, woth mining companies and travel firms also dropping.

Investors are unable to avoid the pervasive fear of a global slowdown, says Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor:

With the consumer being central to US economic growth, the recent raft of pessimistic readings has led to some concerns that sentiment could become self-fulfilling as consumers hunker down in the face of higher prices, especially fuel and food.

The Federal Reserve will of course be aware of the deteriorating sentiment, but for the moment is showing no signs of abandoning its primary objective of battling inflation head-on.

H&M, the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, has bucked the gloom in the retail sector with 33% growth in quarterly profit.

Sweden’s H&M beat expectations, as shoppers returned to its stores as pandemic restrictions were lifted.

The company posted a pretax profit of 4.78 billion Swedish crowns (£385m) in the second quarter, up from 3.59 billion crowns a year earlier.

Chief Executive Officer Helena Helmersson said:

“Sales in physical stores increased substantially while online continues to do well,”

“Disruption and delays still exist in the supply chain, but are gradually being eased,”

However, H&M added that sales could fall as much as 6% in June as the war in Ukraine and supply chain snags weigh.

Low-income families facing rising financial distress

About 7 million struggling families in the UK are living through a “frightening year of financial fear”, going without food, heating, toiletries and even showering as they try to cope with the cost of living crisis, a leading charity has said.

Many people are falling deep into debt as they try to stay afloat, using credit cards or cash from loan sharks to pay for food and other basics and building up arrears on energy bills, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), an anti-poverty charity.

The extent of the crisis facing low-income households was so serious that more than 2 million households were no longer choosing between “heating or eating” because they had already gone without both, the charity said.

Katie Schmuecker, JRF’s principal policy adviser, warns:

“Our research illustrates the frightening year of financial fear low-income families are living through.

Families up and down the country have been faced with options that are simple but grim: fall behind on bills, go without essentials like enough food, or take on expensive debt at high interest. In some cases they had to do all three”.

Here’s the full story:

Recession worries weigh on markets

Recession worries are weighing on markets again today, after surging inflation hit consumer confidence in America.

Wall Street took a tumble yesterday, following data showing that US consumers’ short-term economic expectations had tumbled to the lowest level since March 2013.

The report, from the Conference Board, suggested the world’s largest economy will see weaker growth in the second half of 2022 and a “growing risk of recession by year end”.

The S&P 500 stock index shed 2%, while the tech-focused Nasdaq tumbled 3% as the recent recovery in the markets tailed off.

Hebe Chen of IG says it’s “time to face reality”.

Wall Street tumbled again last night as the US Conference Board consumer confidence data unveiled a reality that the market can’t lie to itself anymore—the current business conditions were less favourable month by month, but the worst part is almost one-third (29.5%) of consumers are expecting things just to get worse.

The Expectations Index, based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions, decreased sharply to the lowest level since March 2013.

The extremely pessimistic view just highlighted the damage that has been done by the ongoing inflation pain and further consolidated the recession concerns.

European markets are set for a lower open too, with the FTSE 100 seen down around 55 points (0.6%).

Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management adds:

The dire sentiment data suggests weaker consumer demand will intensify an earning recession that could trigger new lows.

So, the extent to which the recent US and Eurozone equity market upswing marks the cycle low or is a bear market rally depends primarily on downside earnings risks from the economy and the latest data should provide a very sobering thought.

Introduction: UK shop prices hit highest rate of inflation since 2008

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the world economy and the financial markets.

The squeeze on UK households has intensified, as prices in the shops jumped at the fastest pace since September 2008, just before the financial crisis.

Shop price inflation accelerated to 3.1% in June, up from 2.8% in May – a 13-year high, the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show.

Food inflation hit the highest in over a decade, accelerating to 5.6% in June, driven by pricier fresh food (where prices jumped 6.2% over the year, the highest inflation rate since May 2009).

UK shop price inflation
UK shop price inflation Photograph: BRC

The report highlights how surging prices for commodities, energy, fuel and transport are feeding through to the shop shelves.

Helen Dickinson OBE, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said:

Food prices rose sharply, particularly for fresh foods such as cheese which has been affected by the spiralling costs of fertiliser and animal feed.

Dickinson warned that the government may need to provide more support:

Retailers are working to find more ways to protect their customers from the worst effects of inflation, but if costs continue to spiral, Government may need to find ways to help retail businesses support their customers.”

Supermarkets are also expanding their value ranges to offer a wider choice for customers trading down and providing discounts to vulnerable groups, Dickinson added.

Yesterday, market researcher NielsenIQ reported a jump in purchases of frozen food as shoppers tried to economise, with sales of frozen poultry were up 12% compared with a year earlier.

Sales of other cheaper products also rose: sales of rice and grains rising by 11%, while canned beans and pasta were up by 10% and 9% more gravy and stock was sold. Sales of dry pasta have climbed by 31%.

Mike Watkins, Head of Retailer and Business Insight, NielsenIQ, explains:

As inflation accelerates due to rising energy, travel and now food costs, shoppers are now more likely to cut down on out of home consumption, shop to a fixed budget, switch to cheaper private label and seek out retailers where prices are the lowest.”

The agenda

  • 10am BST: Eurozone business and consumer confidence reports for June
  • Noon BST: US weekly mortgage applications
  • 1pm BST: German inflation report for June
  • 2pm BST: Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey speaks on a panel at the ECB’s ‘future of central banking’ forum, with ECB president Christine Lagarde and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell
  • 2.30pm BST: Treasury committee hearing on the appointment of Dr Swati Dhingra to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee
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