British Retail Consortium (BRC) Shop Price Index (SPI) for April showed overall prices were 1.28 percent lower than in April 2005, a greater decrease than the 1.17 percent reported in February.
The 1.28 percent decrease in April is the lowest inflation rate since January 2005, with prices in April the lowest they have been so far this year.
Overall, shop prices in April fell by 0.10 percent from March, a further fall from the 0.35 percent decrease from February to March.
Kevin Hawkins, Director General, BRC comments: “It comes as no real surprise that prices in April remain lower than a year ago. With recent footfall data showing the worst Easter fortnight in over a decade and the continuing underlying lacklustre performance in retail sales, retailers are doing everything they can to stimulate demand.”
“We have seen price deflation for over 6 months now. This, coupled with rent and rate rises of up to 10 percent and a forthcoming National Minimum Wage hike of 6 percent, shows the amount of pressure the sector is under to stimulate profitable sales."
"It is clear that a cut in interest rates will assist in easing these pressures and go some way to revive consumer confidence.”
Mike Watkins, Senior Manager, Retailer Services, ACNielsen comments: “Whilst the UK shopper continues to benefit from price deflation this is not necessarily good news for all retailers.”
“The supermarket chains had a good Easter on balance but this was not reflected in some other channels and I expect the consumer to continue to be cautious on all discretionary spend for the next few months.”
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