Morrisons is celebrating its third week in a row at the top of The Grocer 33 price survey as rivals shied away from the usual deep price cuts. Its £42.91 basket was 34p cheaper than Tesco's - the key point of difference being its half-price Old El Paso fajita dinner kit. It also cut the price of its own-label pâté by 10p and its basket would have been cheaper still had it not added £1.98 to the price of its beef rump steak. Although the price of fresh broccoli does not figure in this week's basket totals, Morrisons and Waitrose were the only two to maintain their prices in the wake of the flood devastation. The others put prices up by 44% on average. Tesco moves into second position, maintaining its low prices but not undertaking any aggressive price cuts. Even so, it could not compete with its cheaper rivals, Asda and Morrisons, on the price of kiwifruit. Despite its cheap kiwifruit, Asda only managed third place, undercut by Morrisons and Tesco on the price of its Old El Paso fajita dinner kit. However, its Australian red wine, celery, kiwifruit and new potatoes were among the cheapest on the list. Sainsbury's, in fourth place, cut 6p off its Cathedral City Cheddar, 4p off frozen broccoli and 4p off Batchelors Super Noodles - but this wasn't enough to make a difference to its ranking. Somerfield decided the only way to shift its vanilla ice cream given the inclement weather was to reduce it to 50p, the cheapest in the survey this week. But it added 17p to the price of Andrex toilet roll and 19 of its products were more expensive than at Waitrose. The gap between the cheapest and most expensive retailer has narrowed since last week from £8.72 to £7.02. But with a £49.93 basket total, Waitrose is this week's most expensive retailer once more though it halved the price of its Old El Paso fajita dinner kit to make its offering the second-cheapest on the list.

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