UK shop prices rise at fastest pace in nearly two years
- By Reuters -
- Jan 27, 2026
Prices at major UK retailers rose at the fastest pace since February 2024 this month, led by a pick-up in prices for food as well as furniture and health and beauty products, industry figures showed on Tuesday.
The British Retail Consortium’s shop price index showed a 1.5% annual rise in January, up from a 0.7% gain in December.
Food prices were 3.9% higher than a year earlier, up from a 3.3% rise in December and the biggest increase since October.
“Any suggestion that inflation has peaked is simply not borne out by these figures,” BRC Chief Executive Helen Dickinson said.
“Shop price inflation jumped this month due to high business energy costs and the hike to National Insurance continuing to feed through to prices. Meat, fish and fruit were particularly affected,” she added.
Non-food prices rose by 0.3%, also the biggest annual rise since February 2024.
- Official consumer price inflation data for December – which covers a wider range of goods and services – rose to 3.4% from 3.2%
- Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey expects CPI to fall close to 2% by April or May, largely due to different one-off price changes in regulated prices and taxes this year compared to 2025
- CPI data showed food and non-alcoholic drink prices rose 4.5% year-on-year, less than the 5.3% forecast by the BoE in November
- April 2025 brought a 25 billion-pound ($34 billion) increase in employers’ National Insurance payments, which affected most heavily sectors such as retail with more lower-paid, part-time staff
- The BRC data is based on prices from January 1-7