Reports on rising inflation over the past 12 months have moved from the preserve of macroeconomic wonks to front and centre of everyone’s lives.

The Bank of England has tried to cool down increasing prices by raising interest rates - which has heaped further pressure on households which were already seeing the cost of living go up.

There appear to be some signs the tough medicine is having the desired effect with inflation growth easing in the last quarter, albeit progress has been modest.

Inflationary pressures have been a long time coming, however.

Our conversations at the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) with retail leaders saw these pressures coming well before the conflict in Ukraine.

Labour shortages, freight issues, dislocation of supply caused by the pandemic, Brexit frictions, a weakening pound, rises in statutory costs, the impact of climate changes on commodities and harvests - the reasons to expect rising costs were obvious.

The invasion of Ukraine put this into overdrive. Global wheat and corn prices rose steeply. Fertiliser and animal feed costs rocketed, pushing up the cost of food production in other countries. A weaker pound added pressure to imports.

Energy prices shot up, affecting manufacturing, retail operational costs, and transport, not to mention the impact on households. Labour shortages and pressures on household incomes began to push up wages, which fed back into costs and spiralled from there.

The SRC felt its warnings that these costs would inevitably lead to increased prices were ignored. Somewhat unfairly a worryingly high number of politicians, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and commentators instead tried to put the blame for high inflation on retailers, accusing them in some instances of "profiteering" and "greed-flation". Even a cursory look at food retailers’ profit margins should have put such ideas to bed.

Few retailers want to put their prices up. Every retailer I speak to is conscious of the pressures that many of their customers and colleagues are facing. They’ve done their best to shield them by absorbing as much of these increased costs as they can. Why? Because Scotland is fortunate to have a highly competitive retail market.

Retailers have expanded value ranges, offered discounts to vulnerable groups and blue-light workers, raised the pay of staff, and reduced costs for the future. Yet some commentators refused to see it.

So, it was no surprise that many eyes were on the recently released Competition and Markets Authority report into grocery competition and pricing. The results were unambiguous. The CMA was clear that “the evidence we have seen indicates that recent high price inflation for groceries does not appear to date to have been driven at an aggregate level by weak or ineffective competition between retailers.”

Instead, the report noted how food retailers were going to great lengths to absorb rising costs, even seeing operational profits drop to a historic low of just 1.8%. When looking at why costs had risen, the CMA noted a “confluence of factors - large shocks in both commodity prices and energy prices, coupled with rising labour costs”, exacerbated by the situation in Ukraine. It is odd that it took the CMA to point out what to many in the industry was seemingly obvious.

There were some recommendations on unit pricing, though the CMA was quick to note that the issues largely “stem from the rules themselves, which permit unhelpful inconsistencies in retailers’ practices, and leave too much scope for interpretation". Ironically this was something the industry had already pointed out.

Retail’s central role in people’s lives has made it an obvious political target during the costs crunch. However, the evidence of a competitive food retail sector is now undeniable.

Hopefully, parliamentarians and other siren voices will stop looking towards retail for scapegoats on inflation. Instead, they should consider how public policy might assist. We recently saw an understanding of this, with government acting on retailers’ calls to extend the timelines on extended producer responsibility, the new recycling levy. The next vital thing government must do is keep down the business rate.

Retailers are problem-solvers. If policymakers truly want to halve inflation by the year-end, they would be well advised to spend less time criticising retailers and more time listening to them.

David Lonsdale is director of the Scottish Retail Consortium