Proactive Investors - UK shop price inflation faded to a more than three-year low last month, with both food and non-food prices easing.
Shop prices in March were up 1.3% on a year ago, according to an index compiled by the British Retail Consortium and NielsenIQ, which was down from 2.5% in February.
This was the lowest since December 2021, as well being below the three-month average of 2.2%.
Non-food inflation retreated to 0.2% from 1.3% a month earlier, while food inflation softened from 5.0% in February to 3.7% in March, the lowest reading since April 2022.
It was the tenth consecutive deceleration in food inflation, tallying with separate grocery market data from Kantar that showed supermarket inflation increasing at its slowest rate in more than two years.
Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at NielsenIQ, said a key driver this month was a further fall in food prices, with inflation down from 15% this time last year.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said the fall in prices reflected retailers competing "fiercely" to bring prices down.
She noted that Easter treats were more expensive than in previous years due to high global cocoa and sugar prices, but she said retailers "provided cracking deals on popular chocolates, which led to price falls compared to the previous month".
"Dairy prices also fell on the month as farmgate prices eased, and retailers worked hard to lower prices for many essentials. In non-food, prices of electricals, clothing and footwear fell as retailers increased promotions to entice consumer spending."