Food inflation quickens while non-food prices fall

Food prices grew faster in April, but non-food prices were down on last year, the latest Shop Price Index has shown.

The survey, organised by the British Retail Consortium and analysts Nielsen, shows that annual food inflation quickened to 4.7% in April, up from 4.1% in March.

However, non-food prices were seen to be falling faster than any time since September. This price drop has chiefly been attributed to the discounting of electrical goods, which are 5% cheaper than a year ago.

The BRC's director-general, Stephen Robertson, said there was "no doubt" that food prices would be higher still if retailers were not making efforts to contain them.

"Retailers are succeeding at protecting customers from the full force of increasing commodity, energy and transport costs by absorbing most of those increases themselves, even when it's at the expense of their own margins," he said.