Reports are that strong inflationary pressures are all set to feed through to shop prices over the coming couple of months, as has been revealed by the latest data released on "factory gate" inflation.

During the month of March, wholesale price inflation hiked to a shockingly high annual rate of 5%, a significant rise when compared to the figure of 4.2% reported for the month of February. City observers have gone ahead and termed that news as "unappetising" and "concerning".

Some, if not the entire, prices would end up feeding through to the shops over the coming year, though how far the retail prices would rise would be directly affected by how much of the increase is actually absorbed by supermarkets and supermarket chains.

The main reason for the hike in factory gate prices directly seems to be the rapid rise in commodity prices which has been recorded since autumn, with a definite pick-up in global economy, especially developing economies like China and India, has pushed up the input prices for manufacturers and suppliers across UK.

The weak value of the British Pound has also lifted the price of goods which are imported.