2 . Shop prices in the United Kingdom accelerated at their fastest rate in more than 10 years last month, according to a closely watched measure. The British Retail (零售) Consortium, or BRC and NielsenIQ Index showed retail price annual inflation (通货膨胀) rose sharply to 1.8 percent in February, up from 1.5 percent in January. This is the highest rate recorded by the indicator since November 2011, the BRC said in a news release.

Fresh food price rises as well as health, beauty, and furniture prices contributed to the inflationary increase, said the BRC. Helen Dickinson, the BRC’s chief executive, said retailers were also being impacted by higher shipping rates, as well as labor shortages, commodity price increases and rising energy prices. “Food inflation remained the key driver behind higher prices, particularly for fresh food, which has been impacted by poor harvests, both in the UK and globally,” Dickinson said. “There is little sign of change, with the Bank of England predicting price rises to continue until at least the spring.”

The rise in shop prices adds to the cost of living pressure faced by British households already ready for a major increase in energy bills next month. Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at research company NielsenIQ, said retail prices would likely continue to rise throughout the next few months.

“Inflation has increased since the start of the year and the potential trend in shop prices will be upwards over the next few months,” he said. “With falling income for most households, retailers will need to keep encouraging customers to spend by offering choice and value and, for some, discounts as well as added benefits for loyal shoppers.” Dickinson added, “Price rises will be unwelcome news for households who already face falling income because of the rise in national insurance and energy price caps.”

The Bank of England is trying to deal with inflation with higher interest rates, and is predicted to raise borrowing costs for the third time in a row this month, noted the BBC. In a response to a Treasury committee report into last year’s budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday that Britain’s economy and public finances were “vulnerable (易受伤害的)” to higher inflation and interest rates.

3 . For decades, wealthy nations have transported plastic waste, and the environmental problems that go with it, to poorer countries, but researchers have found a potential bright side of this seemingly unequal trade.

In a study, researchers analyzed 11 years of data on the global plastics trade against economic measures for 85 countries. They found that the import of plastic waste was associated with growth in GDP in the low-income countries. They stressed that plastic waste is still a big problem, especially for developing countries, as the majority of it doesn’t get recycled and even plastics that are recycled still finally negatively affect the environment.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the United Nations and the World Bank looking at several economic variables as well as trade information on common plastic waste. While they found an association between economic benefits and plastic waste imports in the low-income countries, for the high-income countries there was no association between importing waste and economic growth.

While the study didn’t assess exactly how the plastic waste was made use of in the developing countries, the authors note that it’s likely they’re recycling some of the plastic for use in industry. There was also some evidence that the low-income countries were trading the plastic waste among themselves regionally.

The researchers stressed that there is much complexity in global trading of plastic waste. In the future, they plan to investigate the regional trade among countries as well as changes in more recent years. Even with the economic benefits of importing plastic waste, reducing environmental harm from plastics would still likely require changes from both high-income countries and low-income countries.

“Some people might argue that developed countries need to create more ways to better process plastic waste at home, instead of looking for other destinations for plastic waste abroad,” one of the researchers said. “Some communities in the United States may do well in recycling plastic waste, but in others, there is still room for improvement. Producing and using less plastic would be another way to reduce environmental harm.”