UK: Clothing Costs Hit 20 Year High

Verdict, a retail research firm, predicts that clothing prices will rise by 4.4% this year, the highest level since 1986.

This prediction is bad news for consumers.

Consumers are accustomed to getting cheaper and cheaper. Meanwhile, austerity measures will lead to a decrease in personal income.

This will also exacerbate fears of high inflation.

"Although this will bring additional pressure to consumers, the price of clothing will not always fall, and eventually the price will only rise in the next few years," said Neil Sanders, director of Verdict consulting, NeilSaunders.

A senior British retailer executive said: "inevitably, the price of the whole industry will go up."

As Primark and other discount retailers and supermarkets continue to cut prices, and China's rise to become a manufacturing base to bring cheap clothing to reshape the mass market, British consumers enjoyed a ten year price fall.

But the era is coming to an end, and the weakness of the pound has pushed up the price of clothing bought from Asian suppliers by the US dollar.

Last year, because of the shrinking us orders, Chinese suppliers urgently needed to maintain factory operations, and British retailers were able to reach a competitive agreement with Chinese suppliers to offset the rising cost of sterling depreciation.

The decline in commodity prices has also enabled suppliers to provide more favorable conditions.

But orders for Chinese factories are beginning to increase, and wage costs continue to rise as workers ask for better treatment and conditions.

The rise of their own costs also squeezed the space for suppliers to offer concessionary contracts.

In the past year,