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Comment by unity1001 | Hacker News Reader

Its not average for Europe. Aside from Germany, rest of Europe is at around ~10%.

The UK is being singled out because its not able to import the groceries it used to do before Brexit now - there has been a low yield crop season in most parts of Europe and the domestic demand for groceries has literally exhausted the supply that can be exported. Since the UK is out of the Eu, its not possible to access the Eu domestic supply anymore and it has to wait for what remains for export.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/28/british-supermarkets-are-rat...

There isnt such a situation like rationing vegetables anywhere else in Europe.

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None of that is true. The EU average is 19.5%, it's the first figure in the link I posted.

Eu average is ~9%.

https://ycharts.com/indicators/europe_inflation_rate

You can't compare two different measures of inflation.

General inflation: UK 10.4% vs EU 9.9%

Food inflation: UK 18.2% vs EU 19.5%

Same reason I can't say UK inflation is 10.4% and much lower than the EU's 19.5%. They're measuring different things.

The argument was about inflation, not food inflation alone. Even if only food prices are considered, one can say that its hard to trust UK's numbers in anything since the Tories that are ruling there have very funny ways of measuring things. Like how they recently have declared that homeowners were actually 'creating and also consuming rent services' and bumped the UK's GDP a fair bit.

Even we gloss over it and trust the UK's own numbers, the Eu inflation in February would have been driven by mostly Germany with ~24% inflation compared to the ~10% most of the major countries have.

...

However it still does not make any difference since prices are irrelevant if there simply arent groceries and they are being rationed. That was the point.

You're either completely misunderstanding all of the figures you're reading, or you're arguing in bad faith. This has already been explained to you by others, this is my last message to you.

Either food inflation or general inflation, the UK has similar rates to the rest of Europe.

The Tories are not in charge of deciding the inflation rate in the UK, it's from the Office for National Statistics and all the financial lenders would be very quick to voice their disagreement if they thought otherwise. Suggesting that the values coming from the UK are fake is an extraordinary claim which you have no evidence of.

Germany has a general inflation rate of 8.7%, this is below the EU average. They are not driving it up.

Groceries were rationed because UK supermarkets refused to buy them at spot-prices. The UK had a shortage of peppers while Sweden etc had peppers at 10€/kg.

> the Office for National Statistic

Yeah, and that's a Japanese institution not British. Its incorrigible like the BBC...

> Suggesting that the values coming from the UK are fake is an extraordinary claim

Its as extraordinary as other claims like Iraqi WMDs or the GDP numbers generated from 'homeowners creating and using rent services'.

The trust of Brits in their institutions is amazing.

> Groceries were rationed because UK supermarkets refused to buy them at spot-prices

Surely not because of Brexit... It has to be something else.

> Aside from Germany, rest of Europe is at around ~10%.

That isn't true at all, the UK is about the same as the Euro area taken as a whole.

> Since the UK is out of the Eu, its not possible to access the Eu domestic supply anymore and it has to wait for what remains for export

The UK is absolutely capable of tapping EU supply, we've got an extensive free trade deal. I'm eating Spanish cherry tomatoes as I type!

Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/food-inflation?con...

"European Union Inflation Rate is at 9.90%, compared to 10.00% last month and 6.20% last year. This is higher than the long term average of 2.12%."

https://ycharts.com/indicators/europe_inflation_rate

> The UK is absolutely capable of tapping EU supply,

I don't understand what are you trying to falsify. CNBC or their news about the UK not being able to import as it used to from the Eu.

"...James Walton, chief economist at the Institute of Grocery Distribution, told CNBC: “The U.K. is highly reliant on imports of fresh produce at all times of year, especially in winter — the EU accounts for much of this import volume. If there are shortfalls in production in the EU, then it would make sense that EU producers would serve their local demand first. This leaves less available for export to the U.K...”"

Having a 'free' trade deal does not mean that you will get priority over the domestic buyer as an outsider.

> I'm eating Spanish cherry tomatoes as I type

Your personal experience does not constitute a statistic.

I (we?) were discussing food inflation, but generalised inflation is higher in the UK - 10.4% Vs EU of 9.9%.Not a massive difference.

You said the UK, due to Brexit:

> Since the UK is out of the Eu, its not possible to access the Eu domestic supply anymore

Which is just plain not true. Deprioritised, sure, but not unable. A lot of people take the Daily Mail seriously (including other news outlets too) when they say stuff like we can't get tomatoes. It just meant I went to the other shop across the road instead.

> I (we?) were discussing food inflation, but generalised inflation is higher in the UK - 10.4% Vs EU of 9.9%.Not a massive difference

The difference apparently is in how much the inflation affects different basket items. Like food.

> Deprioritised

Yeah, that means 'unable' when there is a shortage like how there is just now.

> A lot of people take the Daily Mail seriously (including other news outlets too) when they say stuff like we can't get tomatoes

CNBC is not daily mail.

What's around ~10%? What does that mean?

All I know is that here in the Netherlands, the prices they're mentioning are normal.

It means this:

https://ycharts.com/indicators/europe_inflation_rate

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