The UK’s largest supermarket chain Tesco is reportedly looking to get price cuts from suppliers, indicating that a period of steep grocery price increases could be coming to an end.

According to a report from The Sunday Times, the supermarket is keen to start cutting prices for consumers on products where its cost-monitoring team has decided inflationary pressures have eased.

The news comes after a February in which food inflation hit a 45-year high of 18 per cent. This is significantly higher than the headline inflation rate of 10.4 per cent. As such, the report notes that consumers paid an average of 23 per cent more for Easter staples like potatoes, hot cross buns and mint sauce than the year previous.

An analyst cited by the report expects dairy product prices to be among the quickest to fall. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that the average price of a two-pint bottle of milk increased by 43 per cent in the past year.

Earlier this year, Tesco chairman John Allan accused food producers of taking advantage of the financial downturn to lift prices more than necessary. The company faced criticisms from suppliers last month after telling them that it would introduce fulfilment fees on goods sold online, charging a flat rate of between 5-12p.

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