Fall in UK shop prices continues
Shop prices continued to fall in March to mark their 23rd month of decline.
Figures released by the British Retail Consortium and Nielsen in their monthly index show that shop price deflation accelerated to 2.1% in March, from 1.7% in February.
Non-food prices dropped by 2.8% last month following a 2.5% fall in February. This meant that March was the category’s twenty-fourth consecutive month of deflation.
Meanwhile, food reported annual deflation of 0.9% in March from a 0.4% fall in February. The decline was largely as a result of promotions for fresh food.
Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at Nielsen, said: “Prices continue to fall across the retail industry and deflation is likely to be with us for the near future, which means shoppers are going to be able to stretch their budgets further when shopping in store or online.”
