Shopping basket prices set to soar

EXPECT to pay more for flour, coffee, oil, bread, butter and pasta as commodity prices have soared across the globe and the supermarkets are set to pass on the increase.

The average price rise will be just two per cent but that hides a range of increases varying from 15-20 per cent on flour and 10-20 per cent on coffee, which are products where the raw material price is a major part of the purchase price. There is no solace in chocolate as that, too, will cost between five and seven per cent more.

Rising supermarket prices come as power firm EDF confirmed it will raise its tariffs by five per cent from July; and warned that prices are due to rise 30 per cent by 2015.

As prices across France are rising Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë had some good news for residents as he said that the cost of water would fall eight per cent in the capital. From July a cubic metre of drinking water will drop from €1.0464 to €0.9627.

Mr Delanoë said water prices in Paris had been rising for 25 years– up 260 per cent in that time – and this was the first price reduction.

Supermarket prices rises are supposed to come in over the next couple of weeks and supermarkets’ federation president Jacques Creyssel told newspaper Le Figaro: “The rise in price will be progressive and moderate, about two per cent.”

Only the prices of products like rice, ready-made meals and mineral water are expected remain stable.

Jean-René Buisson, president of the food manufacturers association, said that they could not get the increases they needed as supermarkets wanted to limit the impact on customers’ pockets.

However, Mr Creyssel told the paper some manufacturers had “tried to push through price increases under the guise of increased raw material”. He also accused the pasta industry of trying to make French consumers pay for price shortfalls in other countries.

Photo:Pumba