Prices in British store chains rose at the slowest pace in a year in September, according to industry data that adds to signs that the UK's high inflation rate is set to extend its recent fall.
The British Retail Consortium said annual shop price inflation cooled to 6.2% last month from 6.9% in August, its lowest since September 2022.
Food price inflation fell for the fifth month in a row to 9.9% from 11.5% and food prices were down for the first time in more than two years in month-on-month terms.
Non-food inflation eased to an annual 4.4% from 4.7%.
Shop Price Inflation
"We expect shop price inflation to continue to fall over the rest of the year," BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said.
"However there are still many risks to this trend – high interest rates, climbing oil prices, global shortages of sugar, as well as the supply chain disruption from the war in Ukraine."
The BRC's shop price inflation measure is seen as an early signal for the broader official consumer price index which has fallen from a peak of over 11% last October to 6.7% in August.
The Bank of England paused its run of interest rates in September after 14 back-to-back increases but has stressed it will probably keep them high for a period to squeeze inflation pressures out of the economy.
In August, annual consumer price inflation (CPI) in the UK unexpectedly fell to 6.7%, driven by a drop in hotel prices and air fares, which are often volatile, and by food prices rising by less than at the same time last year, according to the Office for National Statistics.
