In the UK, “shop price inflation” usually means the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Shop Price Monitor: a focused measure of price changes for goods in selected shops. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Consumer Prices Index (CPI), by contrast, tracks price changes across a much broader range of goods and services consumed by households. They measure different baskets, so their headline rates are not directly interchangeable.
What does UK shop price inflation measure?
The BRC Shop Price Monitor is intended to show the direction of price changes for commonly bought retail goods. The BRC describes it as a proxy measure, not a complete measure of household inflation. Nielsen administers and analyses the data on the BRC’s behalf.
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The monitor began as a measure of 500 commonly bought high-street products. Its monthly collection covers the same stores across five large urban areas spread nationally, including different locations and shop types: out-of-town superstores, department stores, local parades and shopping centres, as well as multiple retailers and independent stores. The BRC methodology reports around 6,500–7,000 price points per period. Product-class weights are based on all-household expenditure from the Family Expenditure Survey.
The BRC’s seven main purchase sectors are food; DIY, gardening and hardware; furniture, books, stationery and home entertainment; electrical; clothing and footwear; and other non-food. This gives the monitor a view across a range of shop goods, but not across all the things households spend money on. The BRC’s methodology explains its sample and construction.
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What does ONS CPI measure?
CPI is an average measure of price change for goods and services bought for consumption within the UK. Its reference population includes UK households, foreign visitors spending in the UK, and residents of communal establishments such as university halls and care homes. Spending by UK households abroad is excluded. Because it covers household consumption rather than only goods sold in shops, CPI includes services as well as retail products.
CPI excludes owner-occupier housing costs and Council Tax. CPIH uses the same broad consumption coverage but also includes those costs; the ONS describes CPIH as its lead, more comprehensive consumer-inflation measure. CPI is still published and is used for the government’s inflation target. The distinction matters: “CPI” and “CPIH” are related measures, but they do not include exactly the same costs.
The ONS CPIH/CPI methodology, revised on 25 March 2026, describes annually chain-linked indices using fixed quantities within each year and around 760 representative items. The ONS updates its representative basket annually. Since March 2026, scanner data from some grocery retailers have also been used. CPI is therefore not simply a small survey of physical goods. See the ONS CPI and CPIH methodology and its basket of goods and services.
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BRC Shop Price Monitor and CPI compared
| Comparison | BRC Shop Price Monitor | ONS CPI |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | Price movements in selected retail goods; a focused proxy. | Average price changes across a broad basket of household-consumption goods and services. |
| Coverage and sample | 500 commonly bought products across seven sectors, sampled in selected shops in five large urban areas; around 6,500–7,000 price points per period, according to BRC methodology. | Around 760 representative items in the CPIH/CPI methodology revised 25 March 2026; wider consumption coverage, including services. |
| Collection and frequency | Monthly data from the same stores; Nielsen administers and analyses it for the BRC. | Monthly index; from March 2026, scanner data from some grocery retailers are included. |
| Weighting and population | Product classes weighted using all-household Family Expenditure Survey spending. | Weights reflect household consumption; the reference population includes UK households, UK residents in communal establishments and foreign visitors spending in the UK. |
| Housing and Council Tax | A retail-goods monitor, not a household-wide cost-of-living measure. | CPI excludes owner-occupier housing costs and Council Tax; CPIH includes both. |
| Best way to read it | A signal about price movements in sampled shop goods. | An average change in prices across a wider consumption basket. |
Sources: BRC methodology; ONS CPI/CPIH methodology.
Why can the BRC rate differ from CPI?
The measures can rise or fall at different rates because they cover different things and use different samples and weighting arrangements. The BRC monitor focuses on selected shop goods; CPI includes services and a broader household-consumption basket, with a different reference population and weighting system. A change in a price category that matters greatly to one measure may have a smaller effect on the other—or may not be represented in the BRC monitor at all.
Neither rate is an individual household’s personal inflation rate. A household that spends more on a category whose prices are rising quickly may experience a different change in its own costs than the national average. The BRC figure should not be described as CPI or as a complete cost-of-living index.
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How to interpret a shop-inflation headline
- Check the measure. “Shop price inflation” commonly refers to the BRC Shop Price Monitor, not ONS CPI.
- Check the reference month. Inflation figures describe price changes over a stated period; a rate without its month is incomplete.
- Compare like with like. Before comparing the BRC rate with CPI or CPIH, note that their coverage, samples and weights differ.
- Keep CPI and CPIH distinct. CPI excludes owner-occupier housing costs and Council Tax; CPIH includes them.
A dated example: BRC results for August 2026
The BRC release for 1–7 August 2026 reported year-on-year shop-price inflation of 1.5%. Its reported rates were 2.8% for food, 0.9% for non-food, 3.0% for fresh food and 2.5% for ambient food. These are BRC Shop Price Monitor results for August 2026, not CPI figures.
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BRC Chief Executive Helen Dickinson said shop-price inflation had risen to its highest level in over two years, “albeit well below the headline Consumer Price Index.” That is the BRC’s interpretation of the August results; the measures’ different baskets still need to be kept in view when comparing their rates. Mike Watkins, Head of Retailer and Business Insight at NIQ, attributed the increases partly to summer promotional activity ending and said retailers continued to keep prices low as households faced costs such as energy and fuel. The BRC’s August 2026 release contains the figures and commentary.
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The BRC also lists a 29 September 2026 member-access report titled “Retailers keep prices low despite rising cost pressures.” Its detailed figures are not available on the public page, so the August data above are the latest detailed ungated BRC results verified here—not necessarily the latest BRC publication overall.
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