Marketing strategies such as promotional labels are helping retailers keen a lid on food price inflation in the UK, experts have stated.

According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), global commodities are putting "considerable upward pressure" on costs at various retail outlets.

However, it noted that a "greater intensity of promotions" helped food price inflation come down during March 2011.

Indeed, while a year-on-year increase of 4.5 per cent was recorded in February, this dropped to just four per cent in the following month.

Stephen Robertson, director general of the BRC, described this as "good news", especially as factors such as the recent increase in National Insurance Contributions are denting people's disposable incomes.

"It's a clear demonstration of competition in the retail sector keeping costs down for shoppers," he commented.

Mr Robertson added that the amount of groceries being sold while on promotion reached record levels last month.

This comes after the Bank of England opted to leave interest rates on hold at their record low of 0.5 per cent.

Denny Bros Ltd, 08 April 2011