Supermarket food sales shock fall
The first drop in supermarket food and drink sales for 20 years has been recorded as the credit crunch bites ever deeper into household budgets.
First-quarter sales fell 0.1% compared with last year as Government figures confirm that recession is now stalking the UK.
Food inflation hit 14.5% in August, and groceries account for nearly half of all spending, of which 37% is in supermarkets.
Since the 1980s the total volume of food sales has been going up every year by 2% to 3% as consumers became steadily better off.
But the combination of rising supermarket bills and other squeezes on household budgets has forced shoppers to cut back on their biggest and most essential weekly expense.
Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at forecasters Global Insight, said: "These figures are clearly a sign that very high food prices mean people are having to cut back."
Copyright © PA Business 2008
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