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Wine drinkers pay over the odds as inflation rockets 3.4% in December

Published:  15 January, 2015

Inflation may have fallen to 0.5% in December, but wine drinkers haven't felt the benefit of the drop in the cost of living as inflation on wine rose 3.4% in the same period.

Inflation may have fallen to 0.5% in December, but wine drinkers haven't felt the benefit of the drop in the cost of living as inflation on wine rose 3.4% in the same period.

That's according to figures compiled by the Wilson Drinks Report, which showed that beer and spirits drinkers did benefit from lower prices last month, leaving only wine drinkers facing heftier bills.

The Office for National Statistics yesterday announced that overall annual inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index, was just 0.5% for the month of December 2014, well below the notional 2% target and now below the rise in average weekly earnings.

InflationAnnual consumer inflation: Oct to Dec 2014Source: Source : ONS 13 Jan 2015, WDR analysis

Birmingham wine festival organisers hope to change people's perceptions of wine in the West Midlands, where 41% said they would not spend more than £5 on a bottle of wine in a recent Harpers survey.

Tim Wilson, managing director of Wilson Drinks Report, said: "Yet again it is the wine drinker who is having to pay higher prices for their favourite tipple. A range of factors, including the amount of supermarket discounts and the increase in duty on wine, means that wine prices continue to rise. The average bottle of wine for drinking at home now costs around £5.36, up 2.9% on the same period last year. Spirit drinkers who kept an eye out for sharper prices were able to pick up some great deals on litres of vodka, gin and whisky over the Christmas period.

"The wine industry has started its campaign to get Chancellor Osborne to treat wine in a similar fashion to the beer category, which has enjoyed two successive cuts in beer duty. However in an election year we feel it is unlikely that Osborne will prioritise wine duty cuts over more obvious election sweeteners such as reductions in inheritance tax which killed off Gordon Brown's snap election plans a few years ago."

The Wilson Drinks Report is a research-based quarterly business report focused on the key issues in the world of UK drinks. It is independent of any drinks producer, retailer or trade association.

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