British supermarket Sainsbury's said on Monday it would invest £15 million (€17.5 million) in cutting prices on basic items, to stay competitive and keep cost-conscious shoppers onside during the country's cost-of-living crisis.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to halve inflation this year but his efforts are being hampered by persistently high food inflation, which was running at 17% in May according to industry data.
Britain's biggest supermarkets say they are investing in price cuts to help consumers and will pass on savings once input costs start coming down.
Price Reduction
Sainsbury's cut the price of items including chicken breasts, pasta, rice, honey and jam on Monday, following similar moves recently by Morrisons, Asda and Marks & Spencer.
"These latest price cuts will help reassure customers that we will continue to pass on savings as soon as we see the wholesale price of food fall," Sainsbury's food commercial director Rhian Bartlett said in a statement.
Recently, Morrisons said it would cut the prices of 47 products by an average of over 25%, in another sign that a surge in inflation might be set to abate.
Earlier, Asda froze the prices of over 500 products until the end of August, while upmarket grocer Waitrose reduced the price of over 200 products.
Elsewhere, British retail sales unexpectedly rose in May from April, suggesting most consumers were coping with high inflation's squeeze on their spending power, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics.
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