Food inflation stood at 4.3% in May, unchanged from the previous month, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Overall shop price inflation rose 0.2% to 1.5% in May, while deflation in non-food slowed to 0.1% from 0.5% in April.

Stephen Robertson, director general, BRC, said: “Food inflation held steady as easing commodity prices helped combat rising property and distribution costs.

“There’s still a possibility of future supply shocks, but inflation looks set to remain at modest levels. Apart from a blip in March, food inflation has been stable since last October.”

He said that, for the fourth month in a row, non-food goods were cheaper than they were a year ago, due mainly to the price cutting on clothing, footwear and electricals.

“Greater predictability is helping customers manage their budgets while ‘money-off your whole shop’ and petrol discount vouchers are the key battlegrounds for competing supermarkets,” he added.

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