British shop prices edged down by an annual 0.1 per cent for the third month in a row during November, according to a survey.
The survey chimed with the Bank of England’s thinking that inflation may have peaked around now, reports Reuters.
Although prices for non-food goods declined at the slowest rate since May 2013, food price inflation cooled this month, Retail Consortium (BRC) and market research firm Nielsen said.
Still, the 0.1 per cent drop in overall shop prices matched the shallowest rate of shop price deflation for the last four years.
Earlier, the Bank of England said it thought consumer price inflation - pushed up by the pound’s fall after last year’s Brexit vote - had probably peaked around now.
Although inflation looks set to run above the BoE’s 2.0 per cent target for the next few years, most economists say they do not expect the BoE to raise rates again until 2019.
The official measure of consumer price inflation unexpectedly held steady at 3.0 per cent in October.