The price of pet food online has risen more than any other item being followed in a ‘high demand’ basket, a report reveals today.
A new weekly report from the Office for National Statistics has been looking at the fluctuations in prices of essential items online, such as tinned food, paracetamol, toilet roll and pet food, since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis in mid March.
It covers three separate weeks, March 16-22 (week 1), March 23- 29 (week 2) and March 30-April 5 (week 3).
Last week – the first week of the survey – pet food showed the second highest increase across the two weeks at 3.1%.
The latest report ‘Coronavirus, the UK economy and Society’ shows the increase in the price of goods between weeks 2 and 3.
Pet food has shown the highest price rise of any other item in the basket of goods, rising 6.2%, with nappies at 5.8%. Other items have seen a reduction, for example a packet of rice online fell by 11.7%.
However the report authors did warn that due to the number of retailers sampled, a single retailer could ‘contribute to substantial movement at the item level.’
