(Reuters) -British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has abandoned plans to ask supermarkets to impose a voluntary price cap on basic goods after a backlash from retailers, the Telegraph reported on Wednesday.
Last month, a Telegraph report on government plans to restrict food prices drew a sharp reaction from the industry representative, the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which argued such measures would not bring about any significant changes.
“The government has never been considering imposing price caps. We continue to engage with supermarkets about the best way to support consumers,” a British government spokesperson said.
British ministers are pursuing other measures to deal with sky-rocketing food inflation, and officials had reassured retailers there would be no intervention in prices, the Telegraph said on Wednesday, citing sources.
Britain’s competition regulator told supermarkets in late May it was looking at their earnings to identify which supply chains it needed to examine more closely as part of attempts to reduce food price inflation.
Asda, Britain’s third largest supermarket group, this week froze prices of over 500 products until the end of August, adding to signs that a surge in food inflation is set to abate and even reverse in the coming months.
(Reporting by Anusha S, Bharat Govind Gautam and Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)
