Those at the very top of the financial chain are seemingly in no doubt over what is causing the dramatic increase in Britain’s food prices. Common grocery items have hit their highest level of inflation in almost half-a-century this week – and experts say Brexit is to blame.
Brexit ‘driving higher food prices’, BofE expert says
Catherine Mann is a policy maker for the Bank of England. The authority has pulled no punches in its assessment of the current cost of living crisis, and they have refused to ignore the elephant in the room.
Speaking at a panel discussion on Friday, Mann explained that exporters from the EU have ‘quit the UK marketplace’, due to the restrictions and costs that come with cross-channel trade. She believes the red tape is the most important factor driving these price increases.
“What we have observed is those smaller exporters from the EU into the UK really have exited from participating in that traded marketplace. It gets too expensive to get over the red tape and so forth, so that’s an important ingredient.” | Catherine Mann
Brexit making living costs ‘so much worse’
Liz Webster, the chair of Save British Farming, also weighed in with her opinion on the matter earlier today. She has reiterated claims that Brexit is making the UK’s economic crisis ‘worse than it needs to be’, and she has called for a REVERSAL of the referendum result.
“The impact of Brexit is making our cost of living crisis so much worse than other economies. We need to get Brexit ‘undone’, if we want to see our food prices settle down again.” | Liz Webster
Experts find their voice
Though undoing Brexit now seems like an unlikely route forward, analysts are no longer shying away from the debilitating impact leaving the EU has had on the UK. During an interview on the BBC this morning, OBR Chair Richard Hughes unpacked Britain’s ‘economic shock’.
