Watch as MPs question senior retail executives from the likes of Sainsbury’s and Tesco on food and fuel price inflation on Tuesday, 27 June.
Bosses from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, and Morrisons appeared before the Business and Trade Committee to answer MPs’ questions on why prices are still rising when commodity and wholesale costs are dropping.
The executives were quizzed as the latest figures add to hopes that price hikes have passed the peak.
Supermarkets are under increasing pressure to translate savings they are seeing on wholesale items to consumers.
BRC-NielsenIQ Shop Price Index data suggests that retailers are beginning to pass down lower costs with food inflation easing for a second month running.
Shop price inflation overall slowed to 8.4 per cent in June, down from 9 per cent in May.It needs to fall substantially further to help curtail higher than expected overall UK inflation at 8.7 per cent.
Today’s committee questions came after the Bank of England lifted interest rates to 5 per cent to try to tame rising prices, suggesting that some retailers were raising prices or failing to pass on lower costs to consumers to increase profit margins.
Sainsbury’s has announced £15m of price cuts on cupboard essentials such as rice and pasta from today (27 June), and from Monday have price-matched their “happier and healthier” whole chicken breast fillets to Aldi for the first time.
The second-largest supermarket chain has pledged to cut prices throughout summer.
