Research carried out by Nielsen in conjunction with the British Retail Consortium has found that as a result of price-war discounting, the UK is at present experiencing an unprecedented dip in fresh-food prices, theguardian.com reports.
On a like-for-like basis, the price of meat, eggs, cheese, fish, etc., was down on average by a record 1.9 per cent, marking the 25th consecutive month of deflation for this FMCG category. This trend, always stimulated by discounting, is likely to suppress the UK consumer price index (CPI).
Nielsen’s head of retailer and business insight, Mike Watkins, said, “Retailers continue to use price cuts and promotions to stimulate sales, which is helping to maintain shop price deflation, and we see little evidence to suggest that prices will rise in the near future.
“With many food retailers still using price cuts to attract new shoppers, this is lowering the cost of the weekly shop, and so the overall CPI figure in the UK. Deflation price-led competition will continue to be a key driver of sales growth for some time yet.”
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly.
