Cash-strapped Brits forced to cut food spending
Cash-strapped Brits forced to cut food spending
Thursday 7th August 2008
In a study conducted by retail analysis firm Nielsen on behalf of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), 55 per cent of people surveyed said they are cutting back on their grocery shopping.
The BRC attributes the cutbacks to higher energy and mortgage bills as well as the fact that food prices are currently 9.5 per cent higher than they were at this time last year.
This represents the largest annual increase for 15 years and comes despite claims from retailers that they are absorbing some of the cost of higher wholesale food prices.
The squeeze on household finances is believed to be forcing more and more consumers to take on new loan and credit card debt to get by.
This was borne out by separate research from Unbiased.co.uk which showed that in the first quarter of the year Britons borrowed almost £23 billion in the form of unsecured loans and credit card debt - double the figure of £9.6 billion in the same period last year.
Experts predict that as the UK's debt problem becomes unsustainable it will fuel a huge rise in the number of consumers approaching a debt management company for advice on debt consolidation.
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