Grocery price inflation has fallen to single digits for the first time in 16 months, providing some relief for consumers as the key Christmas shopping period nears.
Prices across grocers were 9.7% higher than a year ago over the four weeks to October 29, down from the previous month’s 11%, Kantar analysts said.
It is the eighth consecutive decline in the rate of price rises since the figure peaked at 17.5% in March, and the first time the figure has fallen below 10% since July last year.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
But despite the change, consumers are only seeing year-on-year price falls in a limited number of categories, including butter, dried pasta and milk, according to the data.
Kantar head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said: “Retailers continue to look at ways of softening the blow for shoppers and slowing the rate of price rises.
“This has included upping the ante on promotions – every single one of the grocers increased the proportion of sales through deals versus last year, which is something that has only happened on one other occasion in nearly 10 years.
“Consumer spending on promotions has now hit 27.2% of total grocery sales – the highest level we’ve seen since Christmas last year. This is a big gear shift from October 2022 when this figure was less than a quarter.”
The report said that while the latest easing in grocery inflation would be welcome, it was clear shoppers were continuing to feel the pinch as own label sales remained ahead of branded lines in terms of demand.
Own label lines have grown ahead of their branded counterparts every month since February 2022 but that gap could close by the festive season.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
