Shop prices fell by 1.8% in the year to September 2014, according to figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Nielsen.
This deflation follows the 1.6% drop in prices in the year to August 2014 and is the seventeenth consecutive month that overall shop prices have fallen.
BRC figures for September reveal:
- food inflation stayed at 0.3%, equalling the lowest ever recorded
- fresh food prices were flat – the first time prices have not increased since February 2010
- non-food prices fell 3.2% in September compared with the same month in 2013.
Helen Dickinson, director general of the BRC, said:
“The seventeenth consecutive month of deflation is good news for hard-pressed households. In particular, food inflation remained at an all-time low. In September, over a third of all groceries going through the tills were on some sort of promotion or special offer, meaning savvy shoppers are picking the deals that work best for them – allowing them to effectively budget.”
A separate study by the Local Data Company found a substantial fall in the number of high street shops in 2014.
Town centres saw 964 net closures in the first 9 months of the year – more than double the net closures in the whole of 2013.
The Local Data Company said that clothing shops were one of the hardest hit sectors, though travel agents and pawnbrokers were also severely impacted.
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