In the latest Kantar quarterly analysis of the retail grocery market, inflation is running at 1.7% for the 12 weeks ending 23 January.

This is based on the monitoring of 30,000 identical products sold through Irish retail and is the highest level since October 2020.

The overall value of the grocery market is down 4.5% over this period compared with the same period in 2021 but remains 11.2% ahead of the equivalent period in 2019, pre-pandemic.

While all the supermarkets had a decline in sales compared with last year, Dunnes Stores comes top with 23.1% market share, followed by SuperValu on 22.2% and Tesco just behind on a 22.1% market share.

Lidl slipped back to a 11.8% market share compared with 11.9% a year ago, while Aldi is on 11.6%.

Food price inflation has become a global issue with the chair of Tesco warning UK consumers to expect 5% inflation in food prices this spring and, in the US, food prices were 6.3% higher in December 2021 than a year earlier