Food prices will not fall quickly, supermarkets warn

Food prices might not fall as quickly as consumers would hope for in 2024, supermarket bosses have warned.

During a call with city analysts and investors last week, Sainsbury’s chief executive Simon Roberts said that rising wages and high energy costs could see the industry taking longer to move into deflationary territory, The Times reported.

However, he urged that “food inflation is consistently coming down,” adding that at Sainsbury’s, inflation “has been running about half the headline rates of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data.”

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Iceland Foods’ management told investors last week that by the end of its financial year in March, it expects food prices to rise between 4% to 6%.

Outgoing Morrisons boss, David Potts, has also said that while the worst of food inflation is over, he warned that vegetable lines were likely to surge in price ahead of Christmas.

He anticipates a 4% to 6% increase in some food prices as the festive season approaches.

Official figures from the consumer price index found that food inflation hit a high of 19.1% in March, however this has continued to fall since, reaching 12.1% in September.

According to the Bank of England, food inflation is expected to fall to 5% in the first three months of 2024.