Food price inflation has fallen back into single digits for the first time since July 2022, according to new figures.
Prices across grocers were 9.7% higher than a year ago over the four weeks to 29 October, down from the previous month’s 11%, research firm Kantar said.
It is the eighth consecutive drop in the rate of price rises since the figure peaked at 17.5% in March, and the first time the figure has fallen below 10% for 16 months.
Kantar said the drop was a “big milestone” and is “positive news,” although consumers “will still be feeling the pinch”.
Fraser McKevitt at Kantar said: “We’re only seeing year on year price falls in a limited number of major categories including butter, dried pasta and milk.”
He said retailers have upped the ante on promotions with consumer spending on promotions now 27.2% of total grocery sales, the highest level since Christmas last year.
"This is a big gear shift from October 2022 when this figure was less than a quarter.”
He also predicted a fierce fight for shoppers’ Christmas spend.
“When it comes to where people shop, Brits definitely aren’t loyal and some of the traditional shopping demographics and stereotypes have been thrown out of the window,” he explained.
Lidl was again the fastest growing retailer this month with sales over the 12 weeks up by 14.7% and share up by 0.4 percentage points to 7.6%.
Fellow discounter Aldi sat beside Waitrose as one of only two grocers to increase its number of shoppers year on year, attracting 207,000 more customers than last year.
Aldi and Waitrose grew sales by 13.2% and 5.4% respectively to take 9.7% and 4.6% of the market.
Sainsbury’s was the fastest growing traditional supermarket this month, with sales up 10.1% over the 12 weeks to 29 October compared to last year.
Growing ahead of the market, the retailer now holds 15.2% share, up from 14.9% last year.
Britain’s largest grocery chain Tesco gained share for the fourth consecutive month to take 27.4% of the market, an increase of 0.4 percentage points versus a year ago, as year-on-year sales growth reached 9.5%.
Morrisons has now been back in growth for seven months, with sales in the latest period up by 3.2%.
It now holds 8.6% of the market and Asda stands at 13.6%.
Co-op’s sales have grown by 5.2%, the fastest rate since March 2021, and its market share stands at 6.0%.