UK grocery price inflation fell sharply in the past month as the cost of staples such as milk and sunflower oil eased, according to figures from Kantar.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, commented: “The latest slowdown in price rises is the second sharpest monthly fall since we started monitoring grocery inflation in this way back in 2008."
In the four weeks to 6 August, grocery price inflation fell by 2.2 percentage points to 12.7% while overall take-home grocery sales increased by 6.5% over the same period, down from 10.4% last month.
McKevitt noted: "Shoppers paid £1.50 for four pints of milk last month, down from £1.69 in March, while the average cost of a litre of sunflower oil is now £2.19, 22 pence less than in the spring.”
The wet weather had an impact with ice cream volume sales down 30% while soups were up 16%.
Both Tesco and Sainsbury’s outperformed the market this month, fuelled by sales growth of 9.5% and 9.3% respectively over the 12 weeks to 6 August.
Tesco boosted its market share to 27.0%, from 26.9% a year ago, and Sainsbury’s held firm year on year at 14.8%.
Asda pushed its sales up by 7.7% this month and now accounts for 13.7% of the market, while Morrisons has an 8.7% share after sales grew 2.3% compared with last year.
Aldi was the fastest growing retailer for the fourth month in a row, with sales increasing by 21.2% versus 2022 and with the discounter now having a market share of 10.2%, a rise of 1.1 percentage points year on year.
Lidl’s sales rose by 19.8% and the retailer now holds 7.7% of the market.
Sales at Waitrose and Co-op rose by 4.4% and 3.4%, giving the retailers market shares of 4.4% and 6.1%.
Frozen food specialist Iceland saw sales increase by 6.7% to take a 2.3% share, while Ocado’s share now stands at 1.7% as spending at the online-only retailer grew by 1.4%.