WORKERS will not be fooled by claims that the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades is easing, unions warned today after official figures showed food costs are still much higher than a year ago.

The CPI inflation rate fell to 6.8 per cent in the year to July, down from 7.9 per cent in June, the Office for National Statistics announced.

Lower electricity and gas prices drove the drop, but while the cost of staples like milk, butter, bread, eggs, cereal and fish also eased, overall food costs are almost 15 per cent more expensive than last summer, it confirmed. 

And the public body added that the cost of eating out, taking a flight and buying alcohol and tobacco has actually increased. 

Unite also noted that RPI inflation, which the union argues is more relevant as it includes housing costs, is still at 9 per cent, easily outstripping record average pay increases of 7.8 per cent announced on Tuesday.

General secretary Sharon Graham said: “The government, the Bank of England, and profiteering corporations will try to use these figures to tell people the crisis is over, but workers won’t be fooled while they see prices and profits rising faster than wages.”

Policy-makers must stop attacking pay via austerity and interest rate hikes and instead “take on corporate profiteers, otherwise there will be no end to this cost-of-living crisis,” she stressed.

TUC head Paul Nowak argued that the economy is “far from out of the woods,” adding: “Too many long-run challenges remain unaddressed.

“We need a credible plan to deliver decent well-paid jobs across the country — the Conservatives have yet to produce one.”

Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves noted that British inflation remains much higher than many other comparable economies.

“After 13 years of economic chaos and incompetence under the Conservatives, working people are worse off, with higher energy bills and prices in the shops,” the Leeds West MP argued.

Sue Davies, head of food policy at consumer group Which?, slammed further “alarming” rises in prices at supermarkets, which some unions have accused of profiteering.

She said: “Supermarkets have the power to ease the huge pressure faced by shoppers, especially families and those on low incomes, by putting budget range items in hundreds of more expensive convenience stores.”