Food inflation has cooled off in the summer heat as sales of fresh food get a boost from the high temperatures.
The British Retail Consortium’s Nielson shop price index reveals inflation on grocery items was 1.2 per cent, a marginal rise on last month’s 1 per cent rise.
Fresh food inflation slowed marginally to 0.8 per cent in June, from 0.9 per cent in May, despite a spike in demand on several products thanks to the hot weather.
Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at Nielsen said: 'Food inflation across retail stores is holding at the same level as last month, which is good news for shoppers and helpful to retailers as the continuation of summer weather is supporting sales of seasonal fresh foods.
“And with promotions in place around the World Cup this will be encouraging shoppers to spend. However, pricing in the non food channel is more challenging and after many months of deflation and recent weaker demand, prices are still lower than a year ago.'
Helen Dickinson OBE, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium said shoppers can “breathe a sigh of relief” with the rate of food inflation remaining steady.
She joined a growing number of voices calling on policy makers to help retailers by easing business rates. “Against a backdrop of transformational change across the industry and some high profile store closures over recent weeks, government and policy makers need to do more to address the burden of things like business rates to help to ease the pressure and to support retailers to thrive through this transition and continue to offer great products to customers across the country.”
