British grocery inflation jumps to 5.2 per cent in four weeks

British grocery price inflation rose to 5.2 per cent for the four weeks to July 13, its highest level since January last year, according to data from market researcher Worldpanel by Numerator, adding to pressure on low-income households.

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The figure is up from 4.7 percent in last month's report. Britain is struggling with persistently high inflation, as supermarkets face rising staff wages, new employer taxes and regulatory costs, even as commodity prices climb.

Worldpanel by Numerator, which formerly published the data under the name Kantar Worldpanel, said just under two-thirds of households say they are “very concerned” about the cost of their groceries, and are switching to supermarket own-label products. Inflation in Britain is the highest of any major advanced economy and is around one percentage point more than in the United States or the Eurozone. Grocery sales in value terms grew 5.48 year-on-year over the four weeks, helped by warm weather which boosted ice cream and sorbet sales by 338, while sales of iced coffee and strawberries also jumped. Sales at Tesco, the country’s biggest supermarket, increased by 718 in the I2 weeks to July [3 compared to the same period last year, extending its market share to 28.38, while No. player Sainsbury's sales gained 5.38. No.3 grocer Asda remained the industry laggard with a sales decline of 38, outshone by online specialist Ocado and discounters Lidl and Aldi, which showed sales growth of 11.78, IL18 and 6.38 respectively in the period.