UK shop prices this month are 0.5% lower than in July last year, the fastest annual pace of decline for six-and-a-half years.
New industry figures, published today by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and market researcher Nielsen, reflect heavy discounting of clothing and footwear prices.
Overall, prices in the non-food category this month are down 2.1% on July 2012, according to the BRC and Nielsen. In June, they were down 1.9% year-on-year.
Food prices this month are 2.2% higher than last July. Annual food-price inflation had stood at 2.7% in June.
Overall annual shop-price deflation more than doubled between June and July, from 0.2% to 0.5%.
Helen Dickinson, director-general of the BRC, pointed out that shop prices had now been lower than a year earlier for three consecutive months.
Highlighting the fact that the July figures showed the highest rate of annual shop-price deflation for six-and-a-half years, Ms Dickinson added: "This is great news for hard-pressed families whose budgets have been squeezed by rising utility bills, transport (prices) and other costs."
She declared that the latest figures underlined "how deep the promotions and discounts from retailers are at the moment".
Ms Dickinson added: "In particular, there has been significant discounting of clothing and footwear across women's, men's and children's categories."
She also noted that annual food-price inflation was now at its lowest rate since summer 2010.
Separately, Lloyds Banking Group Scotland chief economist Donald MacRae declared yesterday that the latest economic data north of the Border suggested that the "recovery in the Scottish economy is strengthening and becoming more embedded".
Mr MacRae drew this conclusion in his latest economic update.
Lloyds meanwhile published a UK-wide survey yesterday showing that UK companies' optimism about the economic outlook had increased to the highest level since April 2010.
The survey also showed that businesses' confidence about trading prospects had risen to the highest level since October 2007.
Meanwhile, a survey carried out by pollster GfK NOP on behalf of the European Commission showed that UK consumer confidence had risen further this month, to its highest level since April 2010.
Howard Archer, chief UK economist at consultancy IHS Global Insight, said: "Ongoing improvement in a wide range of indicators is clearly lifting consumers' belief that the UK economy is finally moving to a firmer footing.
"It also seems highly likely that consumer confidence was given a leg up in July by the extended good weather and a steady stream of British sporting success. However, the royal birth will have occurred too late in the month to have had any positive impact on sentiment in July."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article