Clothing and footwear among items reduced most in July as retailers try to counter bad weather

The UK’s biggest retailers have reported the first monthly fall in shop prices for two years, as stores tried to tempt in customers with big discounts during July’s unseasonably wet weather.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said its annual shop price inflation rate, compiled with the help of NielsenIQ, had declined to its lowest level of the year, sliding to 7.6% last month from 8.4% in June.