Shop Price Inflation remains at 0.1%

09 Jan '08

2 min read

Year-on-Year: Annual shop price inflation in Scotland slowed to 0.8% in December from 1.1% in November and October. This was the highest it had been since the Scottish SPI began in December 2005. After remaining the same as the UK for the last two months, shop price inflation in Scotland is now below the UK's rate, where prices were 1.0% higher than a year ago.

Month-on-Month: On a month-on-month basis, shop price inflation in Scotland remained at 0.1% for the second consecutive month. This steady rate of inflation is the result of retailers continuing with the same level of promotional activity seen in the previous month, with little change particularly in the non-food category.

Fiona Moriarty, Director, SRC comments:
“Price discounting was deeper and began earlier in December than usual as Scottish retailers worked even harder to tempt cash strapped customers to purchase seasonal products. At the same time there was some easing of the upward cost pressures on suppliers which have been pushing up food prices in recent months resulting in Scottish customers benefiting from lower overall shop price inflation than elsewhere in the UK.”

Mike Watkins, Senior Manager, Retailer Services, Nielsen comments:
“ While the rate of price increases remain lower in Scotland than the rest of the UK, disposable incomes look set to decline further next year so Scottish retailers will remain cautious about 2008 “

British Retail Consortium

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