Shop price inflation eases in July - BRC
By Abigail Townsend
Date: Tuesday 28 Jul 2026
(Sharecast News) - Shop price inflation cooled in July, industry research showed on Tuesday, giving consumers some respite from mounting cost of living pressures.
According to the latest BRC-NIQ shop price monitor, shop price inflation was 0.9% year-on-year this month, down from June's 1.2%. Month-on-month it dipped 0.1%.
Within that, annual food inflation was 2.2% - down on the previous month's 2.4% - while non-food inflation softened to just 0.2% from 0.6%.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, called the figures "good news for households".
She continued: "Retailers competed hard to limit price rises, with a wave of summer promotions across food and other goods. Shoppers benefited from deals on snacks and alcoholic drinks during the football World Cup, while clothing and footwear retailers offered significant discounts as they started clearing summer stock."
However, some categories - most notably electricals and health and beauty - saw higher inflation due to rising semiconductor and manufacturing prices.
Dickinson concluded: "While today's figures are encouraging, growing cost pressures remain on the horizon. Higher employment costs and packaging taxes, global instability and climate-related disruption all make it more expensive to get products onto shelves."
Mike Watkins, head of retail and business insight at NIQ, said easing inflation would help shoppers who were already battling higher energy and fuel costs. "So we can expect promotions to continue to be an important part of driving demand for the rest of the summer," he noted.
Oil prices tumbled on Monday, after a pause in tit-for-tat attacks by the US and Iran over the weekend. However, a permanent peace deal remains elusive, and inflationary pressures are expected to continue building throughout the year.
The data were collected between 1 and 7 July.
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