LONDON (Reuters) -British grocery price inflation rose to 4.7% for the four weeks to June 15, its highest level since March last year, dealing another blow for low-income households, data from market researcher Kantar showed on Tuesday.
The figure compared to grocery inflation of 4.1% in last month’s report.
Kantar said the increase was driven by price rises in products such as chocolate, butter and meat.
Market leader Tesco said earlier this month that new employer taxes and regulatory costs were adding to inflationary pressure at a time when commodity prices were rising.
Industry researcher the Institute of Grocery Distribution has forecast that food inflation could hit nearly 5% this year.
Kantar said grocery sales in value terms increased 4.1% year-on-year over the four weeks, helped by warm weather.
However, it said when inflation was taken into account grocery volumes fell 0.4% – the first year-on-year decline this year.
Tesco, number two player Sainsbury’s, discounter Lidl GB and online supermarket Ocado were the standout performers over the 12 weeks to June 15 with year-on-year sales gains of 7.0%, 5.7%, 11.2% and 12.2% respectively.
Number three player Asda remained the industry laggard with a sales decline of 1.7%.
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Sarah Young)
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