Kevin Hawkins, BRC director general, said: “With retailers stepping up food and drink promotions in the run-up to Christmas, food price inflation slowed for the first time since August.”
Non-food showed a month-on-month increase of 0.2%, resulting in a total month-on-month increase of 0.2%.
Despite the month-on-month slowdown in food prices, they were still up by 3.8% year-on-year, against a 0.4% drop for non-food. The overall year-on-year increase was 1%.
The BRC said: “Prices have now shown year-on-year increases in ten of the last 12 months. This has been caused by persistent inflationary pressures in the food sector.”
Mike Watkins, senior manager, retailer services at Nielsen said: “The continued deflation in non-food probably helped sales at the grocery multiples more than it did non-food retailers as competition for the discretionary spend of shoppers intensified over Christmas.
“While recent food price inflation, albeit stabilising, will have taken the edge off sales in some food and drink categories, retailers have responded with their highest ever levels of promotions in food shops.”
