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Insight Comment |
The hospitality sector having to deal with “terrifying” levels of inflation, the head of the organisation representing the UK food and drink industry has warned MPs.
Speaking at a meeting of the business, energy and industrial strategy committee, Ian Wright, the CEO of the Food and Drink Federation, drew comparisons with the late 1970s when inflation was at historically high levels.
“In hospitality, which is a precursor of retail, inflation is currently running somewhere between 14 and 18%. That is terrifying,” he said.
He later added, when referencing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s continued talk about levelling up, that “inflation is a bigger scourge than almost everything else, because it discriminates against the poor.”
Worries over inflation and what to do about it have been growing among economists and policymakers over the last couple of years, with varying views on how to tackle it.
Earlier this year we published a report looking into the issue, including the history of inflation and what a rise might mean for the hospitality industry.