On average our six items have seen a price inflation of 3021 per cent in the past 90 years. Today the cost of just one bag of flour would have bought you 25 bags back in 1926. Tea has been the highest riser on the list, with a price inflation of over 5000 per cent in the past 90 years, although we must take into account the advent of the tea bag in 1944 which has made life so much easier for tea lovers worldwide. But tea price inflation is still relatively modest compared to some items. On average, over the past 90 years the cost of goods has risen almost 9000 per cent.
Year-on-year inflation is not a steady pattern, as shown in the chart, but since the end of the second world war, retail prices have risen every year except 2009 and last year when annual inflation was zero. Taking the average rate of inflation over the past 100 years, bankers at Lloyds have calculated that by the year 2015 it will cost £150 to buy a loaf of bread.
