Grocery price inflation is finally starting to decelerate, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel, after months of increasing prices.
Inflation and good weather helped boost the troubled supermarket sector in the 12 weeks to 16 July, with sales up 3.9 per cent. Like-for-like inflation remained the same as last month at 3.2 per cent, indicating that price inflation in the sector is beginning to stabilise.
Tesco (LON:TSCO) was the best performer of Britain’s big four supermarkets with a sales rise of 2.3 percent, however all four of the major supermarkets lost market share to Lidl and Aldi. Aldi gained 17.9 percent of market share over the three month period, with Lidl up 19.4 percent.
Supermarket sales were boosted by the spending of an extra £158 million on alcohol, while food and vegetable sales also climbed 7 per cent.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, commented on the figures: “Robust market growth this year has been boosted by higher grocery inflation, but consumers will be pleased to hear that price rises are no longer accelerating… One year on from the EU referendum – which had a marked impact on the price of imported groceries – hard-pressed shoppers could soon start to feel upward pricing pressures ease.”