The Bank of England Says Brexit Will Make Your Weekly Food Shop More Expensive

Bad news for anyone saving for next year's holiday or hoping to have enough spare cash to buy their mum an actual Christmas present this year, not another Body Shop gift set: the price of your weekly food shop is probably going to rise. And it's all Brexit's fault.

According to the latest report from the Bank of England (BoE), the 10 percent fall in the value of the pound since the EU Referendum has pushed up the cost of importing food. In an attempt to offset this, British supermarkets will "re-engineer products to maintain existing prices."

What this means, for those who don't speak scary bank talk, is that supermarkets will be making packet sizes smaller and using cheaper ingredients to keep profit margins low. Your fave instant noodle may be the same price, but there could well be less in there—perhaps even made using a different recipe.

In its summary of business conditions, the BoE said: "Retailers were very cautious about any increases in prices, given that consumers remained highly price sensitive, and so the extent and timing of pass‑through would largely depend on competitors' actions, particularly in food retail."

It's hardly the first instance of Brexit screwing us over, food-wise. The cost of bacon has increased since the Leave vote, thanks to the drop in the value of the sterling and producers of EU-protected foods like Cornish pasties say the decision to leave the EU could threaten the integrity of their products.

Is it too late to move to Berlin and eat cheap kebabs?