Sean Farrington
Reporting from Hawes, North Yorkshire

I'm hearing examples of the real impact rising food prices are having on people's businesses here in Hawes.

Founder of Yorkshire Dales jam company Fearne & Rosie, Rachel Kettlewell, tells me that her ingredient costs have soared.

Sean Farrington
Reporting from Hawes, North Yorkshire

There's nothing like gathering in a jam factory in the Yorkshire Dales in sub-zero temperatures to remind you of the inflation issues of the day.

As part of our ongoing coverage on the Cost of Living; Tackling It Together, we are in Hawes speaking to households, businesses and families to find out how the rise in living costs is affecting you.

Energy price rises in March loom large for businesses here in Hawes as government support reduces.

The Raydale Preserves recipes are being mixed in energy intensive cooking kettles.

The raspberries have gone from £2 a kilo to £6.

The glass and lids for jars are up 15% and cardboard packaging to send them out up 25%. But, and it's a big but, shoppers and tourists are still willing to fork out for local produce here.

A homeware store on the high street is selling handmade birthday cards at £5.75 each, and a nimble florist is moving away from costly roses for Valentine's Day - so there's still plenty of things to celebrate in Hawes.

The price of some dairy products have doubled in some supermarkets over the last three months, according to a report by consumer group Which?

Which? is running a supermarket food and drink inflation tracker which records the annual rate of price rises across tens of thousands of products over three months at eight major supermarkets - Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose.

Among the worst examples of inflation over the three months to the end of December included Utterly Butterly 500g, up from £1 to £1.95 across several supermarkets, Waitrose Duchy Organic Homogenised Semi-Skimmed Milk (1 pint/568ml) rising 87.1% from 65p to £1.22, and Creamfields French Brie 200g at Tesco up 81.6% from 79p to £1.43.

UPDATE 11:44: We originally reported that Which? had named the worst individual price hike on a food item across all the supermarkets as Quaker Oat So Simple Simply Apple(8x33g) at Asda. Which? told the BBC it is now checking this data following a query from the supermarket.

Image source, Getty Images

While the overall rate of price rises is down slightly, many of you will be feeling the soaring cost of food and drinks more than many other items in recent months.

This is because inflation for many consumables, like milk, eggs and bread, are up by a lot more than the 10.5% average inflation rate, according to the Office for National Statistcs (ONS)

Here's quick look at five key food and drink items which are among the fastest-rising since this time last year:

• Low fat milk - 46%
• Olive Oil - 39.5%
• Sugar - 38.5%
• Cheese - 32.6%
• Butter - 29.3%
• Pasta - 29.1%

If you'd like to check just how much prices have risen for food and drink, we've created a tool where you can look up individual items to see how much they've changed since last year.

Click here and scroll down a bit to access it.

Image source, Reuters

The UK's central bank, the Bank of England, has a target to keep inflation at 2% - although current price rises are about five times that.

Typically, it raises interest rates in response to rising prices. This can encourage people to save, but means some people with variable rate mortgages see their monthly payments go up.

Putting up interest rates also makes borrowing more expensive and - it is hoped - means people have less money to spend. As a result, they are likely to buy fewer things, slowing prices rises.

In November, the Bank put up interest rates to 3%, the highest level seen since 2008, when the UK banking system faced collapse.

Some experts have questioned if interest rates need to carry on putting rates up at the pace they have been

The inflation figures show us that the rising cost of basic food is a big factor in keeping the overall rate of price rises high.

Food wholesaler Philip de Ternant, who runs Creed Foodservice, said the last year had seen a "tsunami" of food price rises.

"Baked beans are up over 50% in a year," he said. "Tinned tomatoes from Spain, also up 50%. Pasta, a basic staple for so many chefs, has risen 24%."

But Mr De Ternant says he feels powerless against the rising tide of prices.

"Whether it is the war in Ukraine forcing up wheat and sunflower oil prices, or climate change with droughts and heatwaves, these are all outside our control," he said.

You can read more here.

Andy Verity
BBC Economics correspondent

The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been keen to refer to a government "plan" to bringing inflation down and to link falling inflation to "difficult decisions" the government’s supposedly made.

Time for a reality check on this one. As governments all round the world were keen to point out last year, this was a global phenomenon caused by rising commodity prices, starting in the bounceback from the pandemic as supply struggled to catch up with resurgent demand, then aggravated by the war in Ukraine.

Inflation is forecast by many to halve over the coming year, not because of any government action, but because it compares prices now with a year ago.

The big jump in fuel prices began last February. Once that’s more than a year in the past, the difference between prices now and a year before won’t look quite as striking. But the slowing down of the rate of inflation has about as much to do with government plans or decisions as its acceleration did last year – ie not much.

Our personal inflation calculator, built in collaboration with the Office for National Statistics, shows you what the inflation rate is for your home and identifies the items in your household budget that have gone up the most in price over the past year.

It's a handy tool to work out how you might want to rethink your budget, which you can use here.

Image source, Reuters

The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has been speaking about the inflation rate this morning, and he says the government's “central objective” is to halve inflation over the next year.

Inflation is the “root cause of the anger that people feel” at the moment, Hunt says, referring to the wave of strikes the UK is seeing.

Reducing inflation "will deal with the anger of public sector workers who are seeing their pay eroded," he says.

It will also "deal with the pressure that pensioners are seeing when they are doing their weekly shop, the pressure on businesses worried sometimes about their viability," he says.

Faisal Islam
Economics editor at the World Economic Forum in Davos

Slight easing is confirmation that inflation has peaked, but it remains stubbornly high, with particular concern about food prices.

Questions arise as to whether it will prove “stickier” ie harder to get down here in UK than other similar countries, where the rate is lower.

Image source, Getty Images

The inflation rate is calculated by pricing up a "basket of goods" which is constantly updated.

This month's figures show that food prices rose 16.8% in the year to December.

Basics such as milk, cheese and egg saw the largest increases but costs for sugar, jam, honey, syrups, chocolate and soft drinks and juices also jumped.

Prices also rising in shops, cafes and restaurants.

On the plus side petrol prices dropped 8p per litre last month, while diesel fell by 16p per litre.

The UK’s rate of inflation, defined as the rate at which prices have risen over the course of a year, has fallen to 10.5%.

It is the second time in a row that the monthly Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures for inflation show annual price rises slowing.

However, it represents only a 0.2% drop on December, with inflation peaking above 11% in November.

But even with this small measure of good news, this is still more than five times the 2% aimed for by the government and the Bank of England.

It is also important to emphasise, that inflation falling does not mean prices will fall as well - it merely shows they are not rising at the same rate as they were.

Image source, .

Image source, PA Media

Welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the cost of living crisis - thanks for joining us.

As you may have seen, the latest inflation figures - the annual rate of price rises - are out and have fallen back slightly from 10.7% to 10.5%.

But that's not much of a gain - the cost of every day items is continuing to rise, just slightly more slowly.

We have travelled to Hawes, North Yorkshire, to speak to people and businesses in the area who are struggling with rising costs, bringing you their stories as well as those of others from around the country.

So stick with us for the latest news, key analysis of what is going on and tips for coping in challenging times.