ALEX BRUMMER: Greedflation hurts us all

Anyone expecting supermarket bosses to tell MPs they are ready to take responsibility for some of the extraordinary 18.7 per cent rise in UK food prices in the year to May 2023 is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Still, it can’t be a coincidence that in the days leading up to the appearance of the retail chiefs before the Business Select Committee, grocers were spreading sweeteners.

Sainsbury’s offered £15 million in price cuts in a challenge to German rivals Lidl and Aldi. Tesco, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer have also announced lower prices.

The no-frills players have built up market share at the expense of the British Big Four – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

Lidl stressed that it is on the side of the less fortunate with a pledge to distribute 1.8 million free school meals to low-income families during the summer holidays.

The reality is that supermarket profit margins are razor thin: 4 pence for every pound spent at Tesco and 3 pence at Sainsbury’s.

With four major chains competing for customers with Lidl and Aldi and a slew of more specialist grocers including Co-op, Waitrose and M&S, the options for driving up prices are limited.

The problem lies elsewhere in the food supply chain. It is inexplicable in this green and pleasant country that the prices of milk, cheese and eggs have risen by 27.4 percent in one year.

Yes, borders tightened after Brexit, labor shortages drove up wages and energy costs skyrocketed after the war in Ukraine.

But gas prices have dropped nearly 90 percent since then, and excuses for rising prices are a bit thin.

Members of Parliament should have focused on the major multinational suppliers of branded goods, such as Nestle, Heinz and Coke.

Anyone tracking their financial progress since the pandemic couldn’t help but be impressed with how they managed to maintain profit margins of 14 to 16 percent regardless of geopolitical uncertainty.

Shareholders fixated on profits and dividends may rub their hands at this performance.

But consumers and politicians rightly wonder whether it is right in times of crisis that every penny is passed on to investors.

We know that lower prices are possible on private label items that are sold at a significant discount.

One of the disappointments, which MPs’ questions could have been aimed at, is why these cheaper items don’t get the same representation as baked Heinz beans and super-sized Toblerone.

Global food prices are down 22 percent from their peaks, but very little of that has made it to supermarket shelves.

There’s nothing new about this. The late economist John Kenneth Galbraith noted that a “get what you can, while you can” culture prevails in commerce.

It may be difficult to prove “greed,” but grabbing behavior cannot be changed.

Peace offer

Reaching first base has taken a lifetime for HM Treasury.

Seven years after the Brexit referendum and a forest of newsprint over the thorny issue of regulatory equivalence, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has opened the doors in Brussels and signed a deal that may end the bogus war over the hegemony of financial services in Europe.

The EU, and France in particular, had been hoping to gain a share in the wholesale currency, clearing and settlement business in the Square Mile.

But there is a growing acceptance that while some financial activities, such as new listings and investment banking teams, could migrate to Paris, Frankfurt and Milan, moving the huge derivatives market could increase trading costs and heighten regulatory risks.

At present, Britain’s £275bn financial and professional services sector, which accounts for 12 per cent of UK output, should remain intact. Don’t ignore the occasional robbery.

Rate lottery

Great to see ethically challenged fintech payments group Wise triple its profits over the past year.

The jump was less about transactions and more about the casual interest earned on £10.7bn of customer cash balances as rates rose.

It’s wonderful to see innovation succeed. But shouldn’t at least some of the generosity be repatriated to customers?

Just ask.