Food inflation has eased to the biggest monthly decrease since December 2020, driven by fresh food prices, such as fruit, meat and fish.

Food inflation slowed to 2.0% in August, down from 2.3% in July with the annual rate sitting at its lowest rate since November 2021.

Fresh food inflation eased further in August to 1.0%, a drop from 1.4% in July, while ambient food inflation decelerated to 3.4% from 3.6% – both below the 3-month average rate of 1.3% and 3.7% respectively.

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: “Food inflation eased with fresh food prices, especially fruit, meat and fish, seeing the biggest monthly decrease since December 2020 as supplier input costs lessened.”

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“Retailers will continue to work hard to keep prices down, and households will be happy to see that prices of some goods have fallen into deflation.

“The outlook for commodity prices remains uncertain due to the impact of climate change on harvests domestically and globally, as well as rising geopolitical tensions. As a result, we could see renewed inflationary pressures over the next year.”

NielsenIQ head of retailer and business insight Mike Watkins added: “Shop price inflation has fallen again in August as many non-food retailers have kept promotional support due to the unpredictable weather and food retailers have introduced more price cuts to help drive incremental sales during the ‘summer of sport’.”