The cost of food and fuel has risen globally. The pandemic has played some part in it but there are other reasons too. Ros Atkins examines what’s behind the rise in the price of goods and services.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Ambrose. I can see tweak on the BBC world service. I look up one of the biggest issues in the news this time it's the rising cost of living. We have come without fails to kate the how swamp we I after a and b court
I'll be warm and staff. That's where is this? Is Sharon who lives in durham in the north of england she's been affected by the rise in the cost of living? Millions of people are and available. Evidence suggests this is just the start. Toast and bell from the think tank resolution foundation. Points out. Squeeze on household incomes is gonna, be the big story of twenty twenty two particular first half and for lots of households is gonna feel much worse this year in terms of a squeeze on their incomes than it did during the heat of the pandemic. That's looking ahead, but already this is what's happening, gave warning the cost of goods and services we buy is rising at at its fastest for thirteen years they descend a figure for inflation, show
prices have gone up by five point: four percent compared to the year before the shift in the cost of living is acknowledged by the british prime minister, Boris Johnson. I understand how difficult it is for people understand the pressures that people are facing on their own household furnaces and to explain that pressure. The uk government also says this: here's the chancellor, richie sumac
but of course we all saying challenges with inflation is important to remember that. We're not alone in that this is a global phenomenon, because the the causes of inflation, whether its supply chains or energy prices, are, of course global in nature. It
The rising cost of living is not only
happening in the uk, for example, is my colleague nomadic bow. Question
is living in america is getting more expensive say in the last six months, things have gone up: food housing, gas, gasoline prices have gone up by fifty eight point. One percent, which is a staggering amount, know if we
tree has its own circumstances, but to understand why living is getting more expensive. Around
world. We have to start with food fuel and energy on recharge undreamt of fat, and I'm only major region is switched off. I'm just put on occasion when its particular culture is not because of the rising because of the rise in prices. This man lives in the south west of england. Those energy prices are rising because the wholesale cost of gas has gone up. That's risen because global gas supplies are down, don't catch. Yeah, yeah fema from the oxford institute for energy explains more. There are issues
lng production plants across a well cut on supply side. There were lower than expected russian gas exports into europe. On the demand side. You also saw an increased demand very strongly in asia and pasta kennedy recovery, that's right, low gas production combined with higher demand. Inevitably, prices have risen and, if that's gas, then this petrol,
normally. You know where I would fill the car I'd put forty pounds,
and you didn't even half philip. This motorist is in her report and the north east of england and she's right. The cost of petrol has gone up official figures in the eu,
a show. A twenty eight percent year on year rise, that's because of wholesale prices, also going up because of an increase in demand and the increase in demand. Well, that's driven by economies opening up after covert restrictions and consumers of feeling this in the uk and in many other countries too. This is a protest in kazakhstan this month and what became political protest started over fuel prices, and if that's kazakhstan in the
who s Joe Biden has talked about this issue too high gas prices. This is a problem not just turn united states put around the world prices
actually has reached record levels recently in europe and in asia. If that's fuel and energy well, food prices to pushing up the cost of living. The unions,
food and agriculture organization, says they went up thirty percent in twenty twenty one and needless to say, this is effective,
people all over the world, not least those on lower incomes. This is one shopper in sri lanka
our current monthly salary. We can survive only for two weeks because the prices have gone up so much. We don't have any hope for the future. This individual expire
ryan's millions and millions of other individual experiences connect to a range of fast global factors like disruptions to supply chains, high commodity prices, political tensions, factory closures and, of course, covert. Stephanie flanders is head of bloomberg economics that suppliers are having to pay more to get the same amount of food and energy to us and that sought to see what we have seen is partly as a sort of overhang of the pandemic, but also
in at the supply chain issues we've heard about, but also this particular thing about the leap in wholesale energy prices in europe. We can also hear a range of factors as we listened to the economist duncan weldon. If you look at what's driving inflation at the moment, it's partially in energy price story, but a lot of it's to do with the pandemic and the recovery from the pandemic. Of course, identifying the causes of a problem and addressing them are two quite different things, and each country has it's own strategy. Germany, a loss of that price rise, is going to be taken on the chin by investors rather than households, and it's evened out over several years in France
the opposite approach by government, is basically written. A blank check they have said price of energy is not going to go more than four per cent this year. This is stephanie flanders from Bloomberg economics. Again, as you can hear, different countries have different plans and for the uk it knows a pressure point is coming. There's a cap on energy prices that is going to be raised, and that could mean a jump of up to fifty.
Percent, it could cost the average family over. Sixteen hundred dollars to the uk government says it is offering people support his rishi soon. Acc again, the national living wage is going to go up in the spring. That's going to put an extra thousand pounds of millions of people in the pocket. We also cut the universal credit title right. That's cutting taxes
those on the lowest incomes? There are the two important moments coming in April: a jump in energy price
This seems certain anarchy
on the national insurance tax is also do these will bring urgent short term precious for people, but in the long
the uk knows it will need to change its energy sources. This juliet davenport the founder of renewable energy company, good energy. What we should be doing now is income
in the long term. Policies that bring in more indigenous supports like renewables and really improve our housing stock, so reduce the amount of demand we have, naturally, just by changing and investing in energy efficiency, we could drop demands in the uk by about thirty percent. This, though, will
Take time right now, the projections for consumers are worrying. Chris O'Shea,
is from the energy company censure. There is an abundance of gas it you can just turn on quickly, so I can see that this will be done in six months and nine months in a year. I can simply look at what the markets, as at the moment in the market, suggests. The high gas prices will be here for the next eighteen months to two years. There's no reason to think that energy prices will combine anytime soon. There is no doubt that the rise in the cost of living has, in part being pushed by cove eight, with its impact on labour and on supply chains, and that a cold winter last year put particular pressure on gas. But even if the weather, warms and covert policies, life we're not suddenly get
were again where we get energy from is changing, it has to change, and while that fall shift is navigated, the cost of living who remain alive. Concern for governments for all of us,
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Transcript generated on 2023-04-27.