Grocery price inflation slows in October but remains double overall rate

Grocery price inflation at the end of October was running at 9.8% compared to last year. 

Annual Irish grocery price inflation has fallen below 10%, following trends seen in the UK, but remains nearly double the overall consumer price inflation, new data shows.

According to data from market research firm Kantar, grocery price inflation during the last week of October stood at 9.8% - down from 10.5% a month ago. In the UK, it was running at 9.7% as of the end of last month compared to 11% the month prior.

However, the consumer price index shows the overall annual inflation rate running at 5.1% in October down from 6.4% in September.

Emer Healy, business development director at Kantar, said the recent figures mark the sixth month in a row when inflation has dropped “although it's still high”.

“We expect this to continue to decline over the coming months,” she said.

While Irish grocery price inflation is the lowest it has been since September last year, in the UK it is the first time in 16 months that it has entered single digits. The rate of inflation in UK supermarkets has steadily fallen since March, when it was above 17%.

In Irish supermarkets, customers continue to turn to supermarket own-brand items in order to try and save money. Own-brand items share of the total consumer spend stands at 47.5%, with brands holding 47.4%.

Ms Healy said Irish shoppers are looking out for the best deals and own label goods remained popular over the last 12 weeks, with sales up 11% compared to brands at 6.2%.

“Premium own label ranges had the strongest growth, up 12.1% with shoppers spending an additional €14.8m year-on-year,” she said.

Kantar’s data also shows that Dunnes Stores, Tesco, and Lidl all grew ahead of the total market in terms of consumer spend over the last month.

Dunnes Stores holds 23.7% of consumer spending on groceries - up nearly 11% compared to last year - adding €23.9m to their overall performance.

However, Tesco had the strongest growth out of all the retailers, up 11.3% compared to last year, with 22.5% of the consumer spend in their stores. Tesco also had the strongest frequency growth among all retailers once again, up 13.1% year-on-year, alongside new shopper arrivals, which added €81.7m to their overall performance.

Lidl holds 13.5% share of consumer spend with growth of 10.7% year-on-year.

SuperValu holds 20.6% of consumer spend with growth of 6% while Aldi holds 12.1% with growth of 2.6% year-on-year.