It may be a new year for The Grocer 33 but the story remains the same.

Asda has again produced the cheapest basket - undercutting second place Morrisons by more than £2 to secure its third consecutive win.

Asda made a number of significant price cuts to produce its £53.35 basket. It reduced its sun-dried tomatoes by £1.20 to £1.34 and its apples and Branston Pickle 40p and 8p respectively, making them all the cheapest on the list.

Asda also beat its competitors on four other items, the most significant being new potatoes, which were 98p compared with £1.29 at Tesco and £1.39 at Morrisons. Its balsamic vinegar was a list-beating 21p lower than Morrisons.

Asda's only hike was on the beef mince. It joined Sainsbury's and Tesco in upping its price by 40p.

Morrisons narrowed the gap to just 36p last week, but couldn't maintain the pressure. It wasn't helped by its £2.49 sun-dried tomatoes, which were £1.15 more than Asda's and the most expensive on the list. Unusually for Morrisons, it made no price changes that affected this week's list. But because it did not copy the others in increasing the price of the beef, its £4.78 price was the lowest, helping it retain second spot.

Sainsbury's benefited from a raft of price hikes from Tesco and climbed to third place with a £55.77 total. Its biggest saving was on Tetley tea bags, the cheapest on the list and 32p less than Asda's.

Tesco sank to fourth spot after ramping up the price of grapes by £2.01 a kilo, new potatoes by 30p and lettuce by 25p - as well as the beef by 40p. Its balsamic vinegar was also the priciest at £2.99. Of the four lowest prices it offered, only the cherry tomatoes provided it with a saving of more than 7p.

It was a different story at Waitrose. Aside from a 70p hike to the wine, it made a host of reductions. These included £3.26 off the vinegar, 30p off grapes and 41p off milk, making it the cheapest on the list. However, it also had 17 of the most expensive items and remained the costliest retailer with a £65.16 total.

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