MORRISONS saw its market share fall further in the last quarter as half of households shopped at Aldi or Lidl at least once over the summer as the discounters kept up their pressure on the "big four" supermarkets.

Latest till-roll figures from Kantar Worldpanel reveal that supermarket price inflation fall for the eleventh quarter in a row to stand at 0.2 per cent in the 12 weeks to August 17, leaving overall sales growth at another ten-year low of 0.8 per cent.

Discounters Aldi and Lidl held their record market shares of 4.8 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively in the period, with 53 per cent of households shopping at either outlet.

Bradford-based Morrisons saw its sales fall 1.9 per cent and its market share slip to 11 per cent from 11.3 per cent. Asda was the only one of the big four chains to boost market share

Kantar Worldpanel director Edward Garner said: "Competitive pricing among the big grocers and deflation in the price of staple items such as vegetables, milk and bread has driven inflation down yet again. This naturally impacts on the overall growth of the grocery market, which has fallen to a ten-year record-low of 0.8 per cent."

The CBI business body said high street sales grew strongly in the year to August with the pace of growth expected to accelerate, according to its latest quarterly Distributive Trades Survey. Growth in internet sales volumes also picked up and is expected to strengthen further .