Shop price decline eases in August
Shop prices fell by 1.6% year-on-year in August to mark the sixteenth consecutive month of deflation. However the decline slowed from July when prices dropped by 1.9%.
The figures from the British Retail Consortium and Nielsen in their monthly Shop Price Index show that food prices edged up 0.3% in August, the same as in July. This is smallest rise ever recorded by the BRC.
Meanwhile, non-food deflation decelerated to 2.9% in August from 3.3% in July.
BRC director general Helen Dickinson said: “The summer months saw retailers provide plenty of attractive offers on fresh food goods which saw their lowest level of inflation this year, with vegetables, fish and also milk, cheese and eggs contributing to the downward pressure. Big-ticket goods that we tend to associate with the summer, gardening, electricals, DIY, furniture and floorcovering, helped to sustain low prices.
“What’s more, as the UK economy continues to pick up, the benefits of subdued cost increases – oil and commodity prices remained relatively flat over the first half of the year – incurred by retailers will be passed on to customers.”
