UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by Tryk on Friday March 24, 2023 @12:47PM (#35291809)

Consider the comparison between Norway and Sweden, two extremely similar countries in almost all respects.

Food inflation in Sweden is 22.1% over 12-month [0]

Food inflation in Norway is 8.8% over 12-months [1]

Obviously someone is making money hand-over-fist from this 12.7% discrepancy.

Comments like the one above are really disruptive to any constructive conversations. It is not a conspiracy.

The comment above is (at best) astonishingly naïve. While it is a emotionally plausible argument, we can see it does not hold up if we compare the rates of inflation over similar countries.

[0]: https://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subje... [1]: https://www.ssb.no/en/priser-og-prisindekser/konsumpriser/st...

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Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by nradov on Friday March 24, 2023 @12:55PM (#35291947)

Norway and Sweden are hardly similar in this respect. Norway is a net food exporter. Sweden is a net food importer. That alone can account for much of the discrepancy.

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Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by kzrdude on Friday March 24, 2023 @01:13PM (#35292231)

That could only makes sense if you count food in currency value, not in stuff you eat. Sweden is not great in agricultural productivity (terrestial argiculture), but it's a giant compared with Norway.

Maybe we should mention that Norway exports oil and gas, and Sweden does not.

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Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by Tryk on Friday March 24, 2023 @01:11PM (#35292202)

I don't quite understand what you mean- Could you ground you statement with some source?

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Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by nradov on Friday March 24, 2023 @05:31PM (#35295871)

It's pretty simple. Subtract the value of food imports from the value of food exports. If the value is positive then the country is a net exporter, and if it's negative then they're a net importer. Every major country imports some foodstuffs and exports others, but countries with a trade surplus are generally better positioned to handle food price inflation.

https://www.nibio.no/en/news/ten-facts-about-the-norwegian-f...

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Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by Tryk on Saturday March 25, 2023 @03:26AM (#35300330)

How would you explain the food inflation of Switzerland, a net food importer, that stands at 6.5% over the same 12 month period? [0]

[0]: https://tradingeconomics.com/switzerland/food-inflation

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Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by peyton on Saturday March 25, 2023 @03:36AM (#35300377)

Food’s already super expensive there. A lot of stuff is required to be made locally. Tariffs on food imports are super high, like 100% IIRC. A burrito was $45 last time I was there. Big outlier country in general.

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Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by ulfw on Friday March 24, 2023 @02:08PM (#35293212)

A lot of that came from increasing energy prices. Norway is an energy producer, Sweden is an energy consumer.

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Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by ocbyc on Friday March 24, 2023 @02:39PM (#35293620)

Yes, we need cheaper energy. Nuclear is a good option. Many drawbacks of previous gen reactors have been solved.

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