The cost of your weekly food shop may be 7 per cent more expensive than last year - if you spent around £35 on food last year you will now be paying £37.45 a week, adding up to nearly £130 extra a year. But the British Retail Consortium, which compiled the figures released today, is keen to point out that retailers are absorbing many of the costs. It says that agricultural prices have risen by between 60 and 80 per cent during the year, so a 7 per cent rise is a small price to pay.

This is true, but the worry for the Bank of England, which is trying to control spiralling inflation, is that food prices have risen by 1 per cent in the last month alone - indicating that many retailers can no longer absorb the costs so easily and need to recoup some extra cash from customers.

Even more alarming is the fact that non-food items, which have traditionally fallen year on year, have started to rise. Instead of counteracting the rise in food prices, they are now adding to the pressures on families' wallets. There are fears that this could be just the first hint of further price rises to come.

Today's figures will serve as a final gloomy reminder to the MPC, if it were needed, that they are truly wedged in the uncomfortable place between spiralling inflation and slowing economic growth.

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