UK shop price inflation was unmoved at 4.3% in December as a price rise on non-food items offset easing food costs.
But the British Retail Consortium (BRC) warned that cost pressures threaten to put an end to cooling inflation in 2024.
The BRC-NielsenIQ shop price index was up 4.3% in December from a year before, the annual rise slower than the three-month average rate of 4.6% and the lowest since June 2022.
Food inflation slowed to 6.7% last month, down from 7.7% in November, falling for an eighth month in a row.
But non-food price inflation rose to 3.1% from 2.5% in November as prices bounced back after Black Friday discounts and before the January sales.
Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the BRC, said: “Retailers will continue to do all they can to keep prices down in 2024, but there are obstacles on the road ahead [including] new border checks for EU imports, [and] hundreds of millions more on business rates bills from April.
“Government should think twice before imposing new costs on retail businesses that would not only hold back vital investment in local communities, but also push up prices for struggling households.”