Shop prices rise in February

06 Mar '08

2 min read

Year-on-Year: In February shop annual price inflation increased by 1.6% compared to a year ago. This is a significant increase from January when annual shop price inflation was 1.0%. This is the highest rate of inflation in Scotland since the series began, however is still below the government's official inflation measure, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which is currently 2.2%.

Month-on-Month: Between January and February, on a month-on-month basis, prices increased by 0.9% after falling by 0.2% between December and January. The increase in shop prices came after discounting over the traditional January sale period came to an end.

Fiona Moriarty, Director, SRC comments:
“Although Scottish shop prices in February were up year-on-year the increase was well below the official measures of overall inflation. These figures show, while costs including fuel and some commodities are shooting up, Scottish retailers are working hard to pass on as little as possible of their own rise in costs to customers.”

Mike Watkins, Senior Manager, Retailer Services, Nielsen comments:
“Consumers in Scotland are seeing the same pressure on food prices as in the rest of the UK with increases in shop prices in ambient grocery now starting to catch up with those of fresh foods. Non-food is still deflationary but not enough to compensate for the increase in food prices overall.”

Scottish Retail Consortium

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