Shoppers in the UK have seen a rise in the price of non-food items in both November and December, with clothing and footwear seeing a month-on-month increase for the first time in almost two years. According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Nielsen Shop Price Index, deflation of the prices had slowed from 2.3% in November to 1.9% in December, which is the lowest rate of deflation witnessed since June. Despite this, the Index also showed that there had been a 1.4% decline in retail prices across all categories in December, when compared to the previous year.
Whilst the supermarket food war continuing over the Christmas period meant that there was a general decline in food prices; Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at Nielsen, stated that “we are now seeing the first impact of the currency depreciation of the last six months, with increases in retail prices for some non-foods such as clothing”.
The statement comes after a survey done by comparison site, mysupermarket.com, revealed that some grocery items had seen a slight rise in price. These included food items such as grapes being up by 4%, carrots by 9% and bananas by 8% compared to their respective prices last year.
However, CEO of the BRC, Helen Dickinson alluded to a more positive trend to come, stating “we expect the general trend in inflation to be upwards over 2017”
