Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Shop prices reported annual deflation for the third consecutive month in July, falling 0.5% from 0.2% in June, according to the July price index from British Retail Consortium (BRC)-Nielsen.
Food inflation fell to 2.2% in July from 2.7% in June. Non-food reported annual deflation of 2.1% in July from 1.9% in June.
British Retail Consortium Director General Helen Dickinson said: “Shop prices have now fallen for three consecutive months compared with last year and July’s rate showed the biggest drop for six and a half years.
This is great news for hard pressed families whose budgets have been squeezed by rising utility bills, transport and other costs. It shows just how hard retailers are working to serve their customers and underlines how deep the promotions and discounts from retailers are at the moment.
Mike Watkins, Head of Retailer and Business Insight at Nielsen, said: “Whilst the 2013 heatwave is bringing strong sales uplifts for food retailers, it`s holding back some non-food sales growth. So the welcome slowdown in shop price inflation in July should benefit most retailers and help to kick start consumer demand as we enter the peak holiday period.”
