Vegetable and salad items could experience the largest of price hikes over the festive period as groceries are set to jump by as much as 6%, Wm Morrison Supermarkets boss David Potts revealed.
Food inflation’s worst period is over, the supermarket chief said on Thursday, before warning that adverse and erratic weather conditions had caused fluctuations in the prices of greens and other veg.
"There's a bit more inflation coming through… but the trend is very much on the downward side of inflation... we've made some further price cuts this week. Next week we're reducing our Christmas basket by two pounds year-on-year," the departing Morrisons boss told Sky News reporters.
Shop price inflation eased for the fifth consecutive month in October, reaching its lowest rate since August last year.
Prices were 5.2% higher in October than a year earlier, a sharp fall from September's 6.2% figure, according to the British Retail Consortium-Nielsen Shop Price Index.
Overall inflation remained at 6.7% in September, according to ONS figures, with food and non-alcoholic beverages slowing from 13.6% in August to 12.1%.
Potts is leaving the private equity-owned supermarket at some point during November after nine years as chief executive officer, with Rami Baitieh, the former boss of Carrefour France, set to take over.