Food price inflation slowed in May although shop price inflation accelerated to a new peak, latest figures showed.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said: "While overall shop price inflation rose slightly in May, households will welcome food inflation beginning to fall."
According to the latest BRC-NielsenIQ tracker, shop price inflation increased to 9.0% in May, on an annual basis, up slightly from 8.8% in April. This is above the three-month average rate of 8.9% and takes shop price growth to a fresh high.
But food inflation decelerated to 15.4% in May, down from 15.7% in April, in line with the three-month average rate of 15.4%, and still the second highest rate in this category on record.
Non-food inflation accelerated to 5.8% in May, up from 5.5% in April, above the three-month average rate of 5.7%.
Dickinson said: "The slow in [food] inflation was largely driven by lower energy and commodity costs starting to filter through to lower prices of some staples including butter, milk, fruit and fish."
"Conversely, the price of chocolate and coffee rose off the back of the ongoing high global costs for these commodities. While non-food inflation rose, consumers are benefitting from heavy discounts in footwear as well as books and home entertainment," she commented.
Dickinson said fierce competition between supermarkets has helped keep British food among the cheapest in Europe and while there is reason to believe that food inflation might be peaking, "it is vital that government does not hamper this early progress by piling more costs onto retailers and forcing up the cost of goods even further".
She felt the "biggest risk comes from policies such as the incoming border checks and reforms to packaging recycling fees".
Fresh food inflation decelerated in May, to 17.2%, down from 17.8% in April, the second highest inflation rate in this category on record, while ambient food inflation accelerated to 13.1% in May, up from 12.9% in April, the fastest rate of increase in this category on record.