The British Independent Retailers Association has said the recent figures from the BRC-Nielsen Shop Price Index are encouraging for retailers.
BIRA said the figures show that retailers are ‘doing their bit’ to grow consumer confidence ahead of the spring budget next week.
The latest report showed that shop price annual inflation eased to 2.5% in February, down from 2.9% in January, which is below the three-month average of 3.3% and the lowest growth since March 2022.
Non-food inflation was unchanged at 1.3% in February. This is below the three-month average of 2%. Inflation is at its lowest since January 2022. Meanwhile food inflation decelerated to 5% in February, down from 6.1% in January and fresh food inflation slowed further in February to 3.4%, down from 4.9% in January.
Andrew Goodacre, BIRA ceo, commented: “It is encouraging to see further rates of decline in inflation across food and non-food. I believe this reflects retailers continuing to discount in order to maintain consumer spending.
“With retailers doing their bit to grow consumer confidence, we hope that the Chancellor uses his budget on 6 March to do the same. We need a budget that will focus on economic growth and boost consumer confidence. We also need the Bank of England to adopt a similar approach and start to reduce interest rates.”
