Retailers saw prices drop in August, driven higher deflation in non-food.
Non-food inflation climbed from -0.9% in July to -1.5% in August, the lowest rate since July 2021, according to the BRC.
Combined with food price inflation slowing from 2.3% to 2% – the lowest rate since November 2021 – the overall figure saw inflation of 0.2% become deflation of 0.3%: the lowest rate since October 2021.
‘Shop prices fell into deflation for the first time in nearly three years. This was driven by non-food deflation, with retailers discounting heavily to shift their summer stock, particularly for fashion and household goods. This discounting followed a difficult summer of trading caused by poor weather and the continued cost of living crunch impacting many families. Food inflation eased with fresh food prices, especially fruit, meat and fish, seeing the biggest monthly decrease since December 2020 as supplier input costs lessened,’ says Helen Dickinson, BRC chief executive.
‘Shop price inflation has fallen again in August as many non-food retailers have kept promotional support due to the unpredictable weather and food retailers have introduced more price cuts to help drive incremental sales during the “summer of sport”,’ says Mike Watkins, NielsenIQ head of retailer and business insight.
