Big discounts and lower VAT mean non-food goods are cheaper than a year ago for the sixth consecutive month, but DIY and gardening shows a 2.3% increase.
According to a report released by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), big discounts and lower VAT have meant that non-food items are now 1.3% lower than a year ago.

"As a result, overall shop inflation has fallen for the second consecutive month", explained BRC director general Stephen Robertson. Overall annual shop price inflation increased 1.3% in May compared with 1.4% in April.

However, the rate of non-food deflation has slowed compared with the previous month when April saw a 1.9% drop in prices.

In May, the DIY, gardening and hardware sector showed inflation of 2.3%, compared with inflation of 0.8% in April. On a month-by-month basis, prices increased by 1.4%.

In the same month, prices on furniture and floorcoverings saw a 2.7% drop - the seventh consecutive month to show deflation - representing heavy discounting to try and drive sales. However, on a month-on-month basis, prices actually rose by 0.2% in May.