Food inflation has increased to its highest level since May last year, according to the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) latest shop price index.

Food inflation jumped to 2.6 per cent year-on-year in April, compared to 2.4 per cent in the previous month, with everyday essentials including bread, meat, and fish all increasing in price.

Overall shop price inflation increased to 0.1 per cent this month against a decline of 0.4 per cent in March, while non-food inflation rose to -1.4 per cent against a decline of -1.9 per cent in March.

“The days of shop price deflation look numbered as food inflation rose to its highest in 11 months, and non-food deflation eased significantly," said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC.

She said that the price increases come as retailers "face a mountain of new employment costs" in the form of higher employer National Insurance Contributions and an increased National Living Wage.

Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at NielsenIQ, which partnered with BRC on the shop index, said: “Shoppers continue to benefit from lower shop price inflation than a year ago, but prices are slowly rising across supply chains, so retailers will be looking at ways to mitigate this as far as possible. And whilst we expect consumers to remain cautious on discretionary spend, the late Easter will have helped to stimulate sales.”

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