Shop prices continued to rise in August but the rate of food inflation slowed, according to figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
Overall shop price inflation rose to 3.8 per cent in August, from 3.2 per cent in July.
Officially, inflation as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), stood at 4.4 per cent in July.
Recent inflation has been driven by food, which continued its rise over the month to ten per cent from 9.5 per cent in July, according to the BRC data.
However, this rise in growth was lower than previous months, raising hopes that food inflation may be nearing its peak.
Stephen Robertson, BRC director general, said: “There is some comfort from these figures. For the first time since March the growth rate of food inflation slowed offering the prospect that we may be nearing the peak of food inflation.
“Despite retailers facing rising fuel and electricity bills, overall shop prices in August are well below the official rate of inflation, as retailers shield customers from the full effects of rising costs.”
Mike Watkins, senior manager of retailer services at Nielsen, said: “Shop price inflation is likely to continue through the autumn but we are hopeful that the acceleration in cost prices that has driven food prices up so sharply is starting to slow.”
In August, annual price inflation for non-food was 0.6 per cent, a slight increase from 0.1 per cent in the previous month.
Prices were up in the furniture, DIY and books, stationery and home entertainment sectors. In electricals and clothing and footwear, prices fell.
One Comment
Our economy is in a sorry state of affairs I feel directly related to the high cost of fuel which affects everything from loss of jobs to a record loss of homes not to mention the rise in cost of all consumer goods.
We have become so dependant on foreign oil that we have neglected to fully utilize such natural sources of energy such wind power & solar power. Along with modern technology such as plug in cars, hybrid cars, v2g technology ,and regenerative braking, technology we still seem to be floundering as a nation as to devising the best plan utilize all that is available to us and lift ourselves out of this mess we are in. We need to take our closest look at which candidates put our economy and energy crisis at the forefront of their agenda.
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