Staple food prices are more than 17% higher than they were this time last year, according to new figures out today, but annual rises are beginning to stabilise.
A basket of 24 staple items, such as bread, eggs, butter and milk has risen by an average of 17.9% at Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s in the last 12 months, said comparison site mySupermarket.co.uk.
Tesco’s thick sliced loaf has increased by 22% since last December, iceberg lettuce at Asda grew in price by 45.3% and Sainsbury’s fusili by 52.9%.
Last month, annual staple food prices rose by 17.8%, the company said.
Spokesman Jonny Steel said: “The year-on-year increase in staple food prices remains consistent this month at 17%.
“Whilst this is obviously still a large increase on the price shoppers were paying twelve months ago, it may signal that the rate of increase has reached a plateau.
“In better news for shoppers, the mySupermarket Food Inflation Index shows a 4.5% increase in overall prices of food and drink across Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.”
More than a fifth of Britons will cut back on their Christmas meal this year, Lightspeed Research said this month.
