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Grocery sales in the UK hit 12.8 billion pounds in December, as rising food prices pushed up household Christmas shopping bills, according to new sector data released on Wednesday.

The figure for December 2022 was £1.1bn higher than in the same period in 2021 and marked the first time monthly grocery sales exceeded £12bn, according to research by consultancy Kantar.

Grocery price inflation was the “real driving factor” behind the numbers, said Fraser McKevitt, Kantar’s head of retail and consumer, noting sales were down 1 percent year-on-year.

“Sales of mince pies are up 19 per cent, but volume purchases have hardly increased at all,” McKevitt said, referring to a popular British holiday snack.

Kantar data showed that grocery price inflation for the month was near record levels, at 14.4 percent over the same month a year earlier, down from 14.6 percent in the previous month.

“This is the second month in a row that grocery inflation has been declining, raising hopes that the worst is now over,” McFate said.

The decline recorded by Kantar contrasts with the rise in food price inflation recorded by the British Retail Consortium, a trade body. It said food prices in December were 13.3 percent in the same month of the previous year, compared to 12.4 percent in November.

The rise in food prices also prompted buyers to resort to discount chains during the festive period, according to Kantar. It said Aldi, the UK’s fastest-growing grocer, expanded its market share to 9.1 percent in December, up from 7.7 percent a year earlier.