Prices on UK high streets fall again, food prices edge up

[LONDON] British shop prices fell as sharply in August as in July but the price of food edged up for a second month in a row, the British Retail Consortium said on Wednesday.

The BRC said shop prices in August were 1.4 per cent lower than a year earlier, matching July's fall.

BRC Director General Helen Dickinson said intense competition among retailers and falling commodity prices were behind the decline in August. "Annual food prices rose for a second month but once again the rise was marginal, by just 0.2 per cent year-on-year, and is likely to be a temporary fluctuation in a longer-term downward trend driven by ongoing competition," she said in a statement.

Prices of non-food goods fell by 2.4 per cent, a slightly sharper decrease than in July.

Britain's broader official measure of inflation, the consumer prices index, showed its first year-on-year fall in prices in over 50 years in April, and rose by just 0.1 per cent in July.

The Bank of England expects inflation to pick up next year and is watching wage growth closely for any signs that inflationary pressures might strengthen.

REUTERS