THE cost-of-living crisis is still hammering households in every corner of the country, the TUC warned today, as inflation figures remained unchanged and Britain is believed to have slipped into recession.
The union body called for ministers to extend cost-of-living payments which are set to end by March after figures by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation remained at 4 per cent in January.
Food prices fell for the first time by 0.4 per cent since September 2021, with the cost of bread and cereals, cream crackers and chocolate biscuits falling, the ONS said.
The costs are still 7 per cent higher than a year ago.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted that the economy has “turned the corner” following the data.
But the ONS is due to publish gross domestic product (GDP) figures for December on Thursday and is predicted by experts to reveal that Britain’s economy contracted for the second quarter in a row in the final three months of 2023.
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