Food price inflation slowed in September as supermarket promotions helped bring down the cost of meat and dairy.

According to the latest BRC-NIQ Shop Price Index, food inflation eased to 2.5 per cent in September from 2.8 per cent in August, while overall shop price inflation slipped to 1.4 per cent from 1.5 per cent.

Retailers stepped up promotional activity, particularly across meat and dairy, helping to offset some of the wider cost pressures feeding through the grocery supply chain.

However, fresh produce remained exposed to weather-related disruption, with poor harvests across Europe pushing up fruit prices. Chocolate and confectionery prices also stayed elevated amid high commodity costs.

The latest figures mark an improvement on August, when food inflation accelerated to 2.8 per cent, up from 2.2 per cent in July. Fresh food inflation stood at three per cent in August, while ambient food inflation jumped to 2.5 per cent.

British Retail Consortium chief executive Helen Dickinson warned that supermarkets and other retailers were continuing to absorb substantial increases in their cost bases.

She said: “Retailers have absorbed wave after wave of extra costs, but there is a limit to what businesses can shoulder.”

The BRC highlighted higher business rates, employment costs, energy bills and packaging taxes as major pressures facing the sector, and urged the government to use next month’s Budget to reduce costs for businesses.

The backdrop remains challenging for grocery operators.

Earlier this summer, the BRC warned that higher National Insurance contributions, packaging levies, extreme weather and geopolitical disruption were all adding pressure to retail costs, even as fierce competition and discounting kept a lid on shelf-price inflation.

Britain’s broader consumer price inflation rate rose to 3.1 per cent in August, underlining the continued squeeze on household budgets despite the slight easing in grocery inflation.

The September BRC-NIQ figures were based on prices collected between 1 and 7 September.

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