The price of food in the shops has fallen for the first time in eight years as supermarkets wage a bitter discounting war and the cost of everyday ingredients plunges on the commodity markets.
Food prices were down 0.2 per cent in November compared with the same month a year ago, according to an index compiled by the British Retail Consortium and Nielsen, the market researcher.
Non-food items, including clothes, electrical items and furniture, fell by 2.9 per cent, contributing to overall deflation of 1.9 per cent across the retail industry.
Helen Dickinson, director-general of the retail consortium, said that the falling cost of crude oil was a factor. “The price of oil, a near-five-year low, has a significant impact on the costs of producing