UK shop price inflation reached its highest annual rate since February 2024 in October, according to new figures published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and NIQ, intensifying pressure on Chancellor John Healey ahead of Wednesday’s Budget.
The BRC-NIQ Shop Price Monitor recorded a 2.1% annual increase in October, up from 1.4% in September and above the three-month average of 1.6%. The figures were collected between 1 and 7 October and published on Tuesday 27 October.
Food and non-food prices rise
Annual food price inflation increased from 2.5% in September to 2.9% in October. Fresh food inflation was unchanged at 2.6%, while ambient food inflation, covering longer-life grocery products, accelerated from 2.2% to 3.2%.
Non-food inflation rose from 0.8% to 1.7%, with the BRC highlighting price pressures in furniture, flooring and DIY products. The overall shop-price rate is the highest since February 2024, while non-food inflation is at its highest since December 2023, according to Reuters.
Retailers call for Budget action
BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said retailers were finding it harder to absorb increases in operating costs. The trade body identified energy, transport, employment, business rates and packaging charges among the pressures facing shops.
The BRC urged the Chancellor to reduce employment-related costs, cancel a proposed 3.5% business rates increase and remove shops from the high-value property surtax. These are requests from the retail industry, not measures announced by the Government.
NIQ retail insight director Mike Watkins said global supply-chain pressures had been building, while promotions and earlier price cuts had delayed some of the effect on shoppers.
What do the figures mean for households?
The 2.1% figure measures the change in prices of goods sampled by the BRC-NIQ Shop Price Monitor compared with a year earlier. It does not mean prices rose by 2.1% in a single month, and it is not the official UK Consumer Prices Index, which includes services and a wider basket of household expenditure.
The latest figures show price growth accelerating across both food and non-food goods. They do not, on their own, establish that a particular government policy caused the increase. The Government’s response to industry demands will become clearer when the Budget is delivered on 28 October.
Sources
Sources: British Retail Consortium, 27 October 2026; BRC Shop Price Monitor methodology; Reuters, 27 October 2026.