UK food prices fell for the first time in almost two years in September as supermarket competition has stepped up.
According to the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), food prices were down 0.1% month-on-month.
Chief executive Helen Dickinson said this came as a result of “fierce competition between retailers”, and brought year-on-year food inflation down to single digits at 9.9%.
This is below the three month average rate of 11.4% and is the fifth consecutive deceleration in the food category, with inflation at its lowest since August 2022.
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Fresh food inflation slowed in September to 9.6% while ambient food inflation fell to 10.4%, as Dickinson said customers purchasing dairy, margarine, fish and vegetables “will have found lower prices compared to last month”.
Overall shop price inflation also eased to 6.2% in September, down from 6.9% in August.
Dickinson added: “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.”
NielsenIQ head of retailer and business insight, Mike Watkins, 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.
“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.”
