Most people were delighted with the significant fall in consumer inflation announced by the Office for National Statistics yesterday.
Overall annual inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (“CPI”), was just 0.5% for the month of December 2014, well below the notional 2% target and now below the rise in average weekly earnings.
However, British wine drinkers have not felt the benefit of this big drop in the cost of living as inflation on wine rose by 3.4% for the same period.
Beer and spirits drinkers would have enjoyed lower prices in December 2014, so it is just the wine drinkers who missed out.
Annual consumer inflation: Oct – Dec 2014
Wine prices continue to rise
Tim Wilson, Managing Director of WDR, commented : “Yet again it is the wine drinker who is having to pay higher prices for their favourite tipple. A range of factors, including the amount of supermarket discounts and the increase in duty on wine, means that wine prices continue to rise. The average bottle of wine for drinking at home now costs around £5.36, up 2.9% on the same period last year.
“Spirit drinkers who kept an eye out for sharper prices were able to pick up some great deals on litres of vodka, gin and whisky over the Christmas period.”
Wilson added: “The wine industry has started its campaign to get Chancellor Osborne to treat wine in a similar fashion to the beer category, which has enjoyed 2 successive cuts in beer duty. However in an election year we feel it is unlikely that Osborne will prioritise wine duty cuts over more obvious election sweeteners such as reductions in inheritance tax which killed off Gordon Brown’s snap election plans a few years ago.”
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