The British Independent Retailers Association has reviewed recent figures from the BRC-Nielsen Shop Price Index and has said they are struggling to understand why non-food inflation is so low compared to food inflation.

Speaking about the report, which can be downloaded here, BIRA, which works with over 6,000 independent businesses of all sizes across the UK, said that inflation was proving to be very 'stubborn'.

The report shows shop Price annual inflation accelerated to 9.0% in May, up slightly from 8.8% in April. This is above the 3-month average rate of 8.9%. This brings shop price growth to a fresh high.

Also reported:

• Non-Food inflation accelerated to 5.8% in May, up from 5.5% in April. This is above the 3-month average rate of 5.7%.
• Food inflation decelerated to 15.4% in May, down from 15.7% in April. This is the same as the 3-month average rate of 15.4%, and is the second highest inflation rate in the food category on record.
• Fresh Food inflation decelerated in May, to 17.2%, down from 17.8% in April. This is below the 3-month average rate of 17.3% and is the second highest inflation rate in the fresh food category on record.
• Ambient Food inflation accelerated to 13.1% in May, up from 12.9% in April. This is above the 3-month average rate of 12.8% and is the fastest rate of increase in the ambient food category on record.

Andrew Goodacre, BIRA CEO said: "Inflation is proving to be very stubborn and clearly not falling as quickly as expected. I still find it hard to understand why non-food inflation is so low compared to food inflation, even though the non-food retailers and suppliers are facing the same cost pressures, and arguably higher in some cases.

"High food inflation is very damaging to consumer confidence as it makes people make less discretionary expenditure on non-food items. Talk of capping prices is interesting but not really addressing the issue of high overheads such as energy costs which are not reducing for businesses as quickly as they should. Government focus must be on reducing the overheads for businesses which in turn will result in lower prices."