(Alliance News) - UK shop price inflation eased in April, as sellers offered discounts to appease fragile consumer confidence, data from the British Retail Consortium showed Tuesday.
Shop prices rose at a rate of 1.0% on-year, slowing from a 1.2% rise in March. On a monthly basis, shop prices fell 0.2% in April, accelerating from a 0.1% monthly decline in March.
The cost of non-food items decreased by 0.1% annually in April, reversing a 0.1% increase in March. Non-food item prices fell 0.6% on-month.
The cost of food continued to rise, though the annual inflation rate eased to 3.1% on-year in April from 3.4% the month prior. Food prices in April were up 0.5% from March.
Fresh food inflation eased to 3.9% on-year from 4.4% the previous month, while ambient food inflation sped up slightly to 2.1% from 2.0%, but remained in line with the three-month average.
Besides ambient food, prices for each category remained below their respective three-month averages. At 1.0%, overall price inflation was just below the 1.1% average.
"Bigger discounts in clothing, furniture and DIY goods helped pull down shop price inflation in April. With weakening consumer confidence, retailers competed harder on price to stimulate more spring spending. Food price inflation also slowed as retailers offered discounts on Easter items such as chocolate," explained BRC Chief Executive Helen Dickinson.
"While we're yet to see the full force of the Middle East conflict feeding into consumer prices, it will not be long before it begins to. Retailers already face mounting cost pressures from domestic policies, with an extra GBP10 billion a year added over the last two years from employment costs, packaging taxes and more. This will be compounded as rising fuel, fertiliser, and commodity prices begin to feed into business costs," Dickinson cautioned.
Warning that consumers "will ultimately bear the brunt", Dickinson suggested the UK government fix the non-commodity charges which inflate energy bills for businesses, in order to soften the blow of higher prices passed on to shoppers.
Mike Watkins, head of Retailer and Business Insight at consultancy NielsenIQ, added: "Increased fuel prices are already leading to higher inflation, and we can expect a similar impact in the food and non-food supply chains in the months to come. However, retailers will look to hold back any price increases as long as possible as alongside fragile consumer confidence, accelerating inflation is likely to negatively affect consumer spending."
The BRC-NIQ April shop price monitor covers the period from April 1 to April 7.
By Holly Munks, Alliance News reporter
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