LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) - Sainsbury's ,
Britain's second largest supermarket group, has cut the price of
bread and butter, in another sign that a surge in food inflation
is set to abate and even reverse in the coming months.
The group said on Tuesday it had cut the price of
Sainsbury's 800g Soft White Medium, Wholemeal Medium, Wholemeal
Thick and Toastie White loaves of bread by 11% to 75 pence.
It has also cut the price of its Sainsbury's salted and
unsalted butter to 1.89 pounds for 250g, a 5% reduction.
"Whenever we are paying less for the products we buy from
our suppliers, we will pass those savings on to customers,"
Rhian Bartlett, Sainsbury's food commercial director said.
Official data showed UK food prices were 19.1% higher in
March than a year earlier, the biggest such rise since August
1977, while in April grocery inflation was 17.3%, according to
industry data.
Food retailers have said they expect prices to rise in 2023
overall but the rate of inflation will decline through the year,
with some products that have seen the sharpest rises falling in
price.
Prices for milk have already fallen and market leader Tesco said last month it expected the prices of bakery
products and vegetable oils to come down as deflation in
commodity markets feeds through.
Retailers deny claims that they are profiteering, saying
they have taken a profit hit and have margins of 4% or less.
Last month, Sainsbury's reported a 5% fall in 2022-23
profit, while Tesco reported a 6.3% fall.
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)
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