Pre-Christmas discounts and deals appear to be stemming the inflationary tide, with grocery prices up just 7.8% on this time last year.
This was the first single-figure increase in our weekly shopping basket for months, while prices were actually down 0.4% compared with October.
Of the five retailers we visited, only Asda recorded a double-digit increase, with prices up 10.5% year on year. This didn’t prevent it from providing the cheapest basket for the fourth week in a row, though it was a close-run thing.
At £69.45, Asda came in just 69p cheaper than Sainsbury’s. Asda offered the lowest price for 14 products and was exclusively cheapest for seven lines including the baby leaf salad, Parma ham and red grapes.
Sainsbury’s was cheapest for a dozen items and exclusively so for the caterpillar cake, cottage pie, Jordans cereal and mixed fruit.
Morrisons had the lowest level of inflation at 5.7%. This helped it come in just £1.19 more expensive than Asda at £70.64.
Tesco’s prices were up 6.7%. It was £3.05 more expensive than Asda, though this would have bene reduced to £2.70 when factoring in Clubcard Prices.
Waitrose was more competitive than in recent weeks. It was £8.95 more expensive than Asda at £78.40. A third of Waitrose’s products on our list were on deal, with nine of these straight price reductions.
Across all retailers five lines were cheaper than a year ago, including the Jordans cereal and mixed fruit, down 14% and 12% respectively.
The Radox shower gel remained at the same price while 12 lines saw increases of less than 12%. The biggest increase came on the spaghetti, up 31%, while the Pledge surface cleaner (right) was up 30%.
There were only a further four lines that increased by more than 20% year on year.
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