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Food prices have fallen on the previous month for the first time in more than two years, bringing grocery inflation down to single digits, according to latest figures.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) found that grocery inflation – the annual rate at which food prices are rising – remains high but is starting to ease.
Food prices rose by 9.9 percent in the year to September, down from a rate of 11.5 percent in August.
Overall shop price inflation – which includes non-food items – fell to 6.2 percent last month, the lowest rate for a year.
BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: “We expect shop price inflation to continue to fall over the rest of the year. However, there are still many risks to this trend – high interest rates, climbing oil prices, global shortages of sugar, as well as the supply chain disruption from the war in Ukraine.
“Retailers will continue to do all they can to support their customers and bring prices down, especially as households face being squeezed by higher energy and mortgage bills.”
The BRC said “fierce” competition between retailers, helped by easing cost pressures, was the reason behind the fall.
Households have been able to cut costs as the price of school uniforms and other back-to-school items has been decreased.
Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at NielsenIQ, said: “With further price cuts by supermarkets in recent weeks, food inflation continues to slow, which is good news.
“However there continues to be pressure on budgets with over half of households still feeling that they are significantly impacted by the continued increases in cost of living.
“So, it will be important for retail sales to keep momentum, which means we can expect more price cuts and increased promotional activity across all retail channels.”
Official inflation figures covering the month of September will be released later this month.
The last set of ONS data had food and non-alcoholic drink inflation running at 13.6 percent over the 12 months to August.
It would be a truly significant feat if that measure were to come down to single digits within the space of a month.
