Relief for families as food prices set to fall next year

SHOPPERS will benefit from falling food prices by the end of next year, experts predict.

However, the consumer price index rate of inflation rose last month from 4.2 per cent to 4.4 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics, triggering an average 8 per cent rise in cross-Border fares for Scots rail users from January.

In a further blow for consumers, Npower yesterday became the fifth of the “big six” energy firms to announce a hike in prices, with gas and electricity rising by 15.7 per cent and 7.2 per cent respectively.

But the Centre for Economics and Business Research predicted a “dramatic turnaround” in food price inflation, from 5.7 per cent in April-June this year to minus 1.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2012, thanks to an increase in global wheat supplies.

It said the rate eased to 6.2 per cent in July from 6.9 per cent the previous month.