LONDON: All four of the UK’s biggest supermarkets are seeing sales fall as grocery price deflation reached a new record in the first three months of this year.
A typical basket of grocery items is now 2.1% cheaper than a year ago, according to figures released by Kantar Worldpanel on Wednesday.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said prices were falling as a result of lower commodity prices as well as an on-going supermarket price war.
This is good news for consumers, saving the average household £20 in the last three months. But many of the country’s largest grocers have struggled to enjoy substantial growth, with lower prices taking £532m out of supermarket tills,” he said.
The price falls even had an impact on discounters Aldi and Lidl, where sales growth slid to 15.1% and 10.1% in the 12 weeks to 26 April compared with 16.8% and 12.1% recorded in the 12 weeks to the end of March.
