Shop price inflation slows to 17-month low in November

Shop price inflation dropped to its lowest in 17 months in November, new data revealed on Tuesday, as retailers stepped up discounting ahead of the key festive shopping season.

The year-on-year growth in retail prices eased to 4.3% this month, down from 5.2% in October, according to the closely watched Shop Price Index put together by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Nielsen.

This was below the three-month average of 5.3% and the lowest rate of annual growth since June 2022.

Food inflation slowed to just 7.8% from 8.8%, particularly for dairy products, due to lower domestic energy prices reducing overall input costs. Non-food inflation fell to 2.5% from 3.4%.

Over the month of November, prices were flat, slowing from the 0.3% month-on-month growth in October.

“Shop price inflation eased for the sixth month in a row as retailers competed fiercely to bring prices down for customers ahead of Christmas," said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC.

“Retailers are committed to delivering an affordable Christmas for their customers. They face new headwinds in 2024 - from government-imposed increases in business rates bills, to the hidden costs of complying with new regulations. Combining these with the biggest rise to the National Living Wage on record will likely stall or even reverse progress made thus far on bringing down inflation, particularly in food.”