THE price of a weekly shop is expected to rise amid growing Brexit uncertainty with some families already struggling to put food on the table, it has been claimed.
Shops in Scotland are expected to react after Bank of England governor Mark Carney said inflation will first hit food prices then other household costs.
Speaking about the collapse in the pound since the EU referendum result, Mr Carney said the Bank "was not indifferent" to the value of sterling when targeting inflation.
He said changes in the exchange rate "helps cushion the adjustment in the economy", preventing a harder impact on people's jobs and wages.
However, some people already struggling as Scotland faces its own costs.
Ewan MacDonald-Russell, Scottish Retail Consortium head of policy, said: “Right now retailers are focused on keeping prices down for customers.
"However, there is no doubt that will become more challenging if the current inflationary pressures building through the devaluation of the pound continue.
“Of course, that pressure is particularly acute as retailers in Scotland are already feeling the pinch from a number of public policy costs, not least the unfair doubling of the Large Business Supplement introduced in last year’s Budget.”
Garry Clark, Scottish Chambers of Commerce. said: "Our quarterly economic indicator is already picking up expectations of higher prices coming from Scotland’s retailers and there is no doubt that this will soon begin to track through into higher inflation.
"However, inflation is still well below the target rate of 2 per cent and would only become a major concern if it surges beyond that on a persistent basis.”
Mr Carney warned however the Bank will not take instructions on its policies from politicians, a week after Prime Minister Theresa May took a swipe at the impact of the Bank's actions on "ordinary" people.
Mr Carney said it became difficult for the Bank when politicians commented on its policies rather than its objectives.
Mr Carney said politicians had done a "good job" of setting up the system in which the Bank operates, but added: "We are not going to take instruction on our policies from the political side."
Mrs May hit out the Bank during the Tory conference last week.
She said it was the rich who benefited from the Bank printing money and cutting interest rates in the years after the 2008 financial crash, while ''ordinary working-class people'' were asked to make sacrifices in terms of stagnating pay, job insecurity and unaffordable housing.
The Bank took the decision in August to cut interest rates from 0.5 per cent to 0.25 per cent and fire up the printing presses for more quantitative easing in a bid to ward off recession following the Brexit vote.
He said between 400,000 and 500,000 jobs could have been at risk if the Bank had decided not to take action in the wake of the Brexit vote.
Sterling has lost around 18 per cent of its value against the US dollar since the Brexit vote and sat at 1.218 US dollars after the inflation news.
Independent think tank The Food Foundation said that "some families are already struggling to put food on the table", adding: "Higher prices force families who are struggling to go for the cheapest calories.
"Children in the most derived areas of Britain already experience twice the levels of obesity than children in the least deprived.
"Rising prices is likely to make the situation worse."
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