UK grocery inflation edged lower this month, data from Kantar showed on Tuesday, after rising for the first time in 18 months a month prior.
The market researcher said grocery price inflation was 1.7% in the four weeks to 1 September, versus 1.8% in the previous four-week period.
Despite this fall, nearly 60% of UK households remained worried about the rising cost of their shopping, Kantar said.
On that concern, Fraser McKevitt, the researcher’s head of retail and consumer insight, said, “This is their second biggest financial worry, only behind home energy bills.”
Data showed prices were rising fastest in markets such as vitamin and mineral supplements, chilled fruit juices and chocolate confectionery.
It added that prices were falling fastest in toilet tissue, dog food and bottled cola drinks.
Kantar’s data, the most up-to-date snapshot of UK consumer behaviour published since the 4 July national election, showed grocery sales rose 3.0% in value terms over the four-week period year-on-year.
This was a slight slowdown from growth of 3.8% in last month’s report.
Over the 12 weeks to 1 September, online supermarket Ocado was again the fastest growing grocer with sales up 12.9% year-on-year.
This was the grocery’s best rate of growth since May 2021, according to Kantar.
Market leader Tesco saw growth of 5.3% while sales at the number two supermarket Sainsburys rose by 5.7%.
Asda, which comes next in the ranking, was the laggard once again in terms of growth with sales down 5.6%.
The retailer also lost 1.2 percentage points of market share year-on-year.
Discounters Aldi and Lidl saw sales growth of 1.3% and 9.1% respectively.
On Monday, Aldi said its limited sales growth reflected its move to reduce prices ahead of the market.
Read More: Tesco Ireland Takes Market Lead As Olympics Boost Overall Spending – Kantar
