Morrisons has claimed the cheapest 33-item shopping basket for the third time since The Grocer 33's End of Year Report in June.

The retailer, which is currently sporting promotional offers on six of the 33 items on our shopping list, rang in with a receipt of £58.56 - 24p cheaper than Tesco, which is in second place this week with the same basket of goods.

Morrisons appears to be stepping up its promotional activity according to this week's report, which shows that the retailer was placing a particularly hefty focus on branded store cupboard goods.

Morrisons also maintained its rock bottom price of 45p for a bunch of celery, and at £14.69

also had the cheapest price for a

1-litre bottle of Red Label Smirnoff vodka.

Meanwhile, Tesco's promotion on parsnips which in past weeks had caused their price to tumble from £1.88 to 99p for a kg drew to a close this week, contributing to its slightly more elevated basket price.

In the run up to the all-important Christmas trading period, the competition between Tesco and Asda appears to be picking up, with both retailers matching each other for price on 29 of the products on our list, five more than in last week's report.

However, Tesco managed to maintain a slender lead over its rival thanks to cheaper prices for its own label peanut butter, celery and a two-litre bottles of Pepsi, which it was offering at £1.32 compared with Asda's £1.36.

At £59.51 Sainsbury's offered up the fourth cheapest shopping basket in this week's report.

According to our mystery shopper, aside from the mountain of Halloween paraphernalia, the retailer only had a very limited number of grocery items on promotion this week.

The fact that Somerfield was carrying the cheapest price for its own label mushy peas and Danone Bio Activia 4-pack did little to improve its position on the pricing tables. It remained in fifth place with a basket price of £62.34, narrowly ahead of Waitrose at £63.62.

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