Cost of living: Prices of cheapest items in UK supermarkets soar by 60%

The cheapest vegetable oil on supermarket shelves jumped by 65%.

Over the past year, statisticians have collected more than a million prices from supermarket websites to compare the prices of the cheapest products available.

This allows them to better understand the impact of the cost of living crisis on poor families.

According to them, the cheapest tea has become more expensive by 46%, chips by 39%, bread by 38%, biscuits by 34%.

“While the recent surge in inflation started with energy prices, today’s fresh data, using an innovative new data source, shows that it is now filtering down to other essential goods, with the cheapest prices of some staple foods rising by around two-thirds over the last year ” said National Statistician Sir Ian Diamond.

Earlier this year, campaigner Jack Munro called on the ONS to update the way it measures inflation to better understand the impact of rising prices on poorer households.

Some goods have also become cheaper. Orange juice became cheaper by 9%, and ground beef – by 7%.

The ONS also published separate figures showing that 72% of people with pre-paid electricity meters are struggling to pay their bills.

“The figures from our near-real-time people survey show that while rising food and energy prices are affecting many people across the country, people with disabilities, members of certain ethnic minorities and landlords are among those who is experiencing the greatest difficulty,” said Sir Ian. said.

“With the rising cost of living on many people’s minds, our new near-real-time data that shows how prices are changing and sheds light on how this affects different populations has never been more important.”