A supermarket price war has saved shoppers across the high street £400milllion in the last 12 weeks . Prices are down by an average of 1.6per cent on a year ago , fuelling evidence that the Government ’ s official measures of inflation will show a period of ‘ good deflation ’ . The figures , from retail analysts Kantar , have delivered some positive news to Tesco , where sales were up 1.1per cent , which is its best performance for 18 months . Scroll down for video . Supermarket price wars have driven down the cost of essentials for customers , saving them £400million . Tesco ’ s revival comes on the back of significant price cuts on household food essentials , coupled with a host of voucher give-aways . Britain ’ s biggest supermarket , along with Asda , Sainsbury ’ s and Morrisons , have been forced to slash prices to combat the rise of budget chains , Aldi and Lidl . Essentials such as milk , bread , eggs , vegetables and roasting chickens have seen big price cuts since the turn of the year , delivering a real reduction in the cost of putting food on the table . The Kantar figures show Aldi continues to thrive with sales up 19.3per cent on a year ago , giving in a market share of 5per cent , which means it is almost on a par with Waitrose . Sales at Lidl are up by 13.6per cent in a year , giving it a market share of 3.5per cent . Both Aldi and Lidl are thriving by deliberately target middle and higher income shoppers by peppering their aisles with high profile luxury or award winning food and drink . Just last week , Aldi launched packs of two gourmet beef Wagyu burgers at £2.99 , which compares to £29 for the price of a similar burger at fashionable restaurants such as the London ’ s Dorchester Hotel . Kantar ’ s Fraser McKevitt , the head of retail and consumer insight , said : ‘ A combination of lower general inflation and the grocery price war has saved shoppers £400 million in the past 12 weeks , with deflation driven to a record low of -1.6per cent . Supermarkets have been cutting the cost of bread , milk , eggs and other staples to compete with rivals . Supermarkets have been competing with Aldi ( pictured ) and Lidl , which increased its sales by targeting middle class shoppers . ‘ All of the major supermarkets are cutting prices to win shoppers , especially within everyday staples such as eggs , vegetables and milk . Retailers are focusing their efforts on simple price cuts rather than complicated ‘ multi-buy ’ deals. ’ He added : ‘ Among the big four supermarkets Tesco has been the standout retailer . It has posted its strongest performance in 18 months with sales up 1.1per cent compared with a difficult 2014. ’ Despite this , the firm ’ s grocery market share continued to fall , going down by 0.1per cent to 28.7per cent . Kantar said Tesco ’ s return to sales growth came largely at the expense of Asda , where sales over the 12 weeks were down by 2.1per cent - £95m – compared to the same period last year . Sales at Sainsbury ’ s were down by 0.5per cent , while the figure at Morrisons was 0.4per cent lower . By contrast , Waitrose continues to do well with sales up 4.9per cent on a year ago , giving it a market share of 5.2per cent . However , much of this sales growth has been built on the back of deep price cuts to match the figures charges by the supermarkets , which is hitting its profit margins . For example , Waitrose ran a promotion where it cut the price of its small ‘ Essentials ’ whole chicken from £4.23 to £2.11 – a saving of 50per cent – making it even cheaper than Aldi and Lidl . The current CPI measure of inflation is running at 0.3per cent . The Bank of England and economists believe it could show a minus figure for March and April , which should feed through to an increase in spending power and living standards . Tesco has recorded its most positive performance in 18 months as it follows the price cuts of Aldi . Negative inflation , or deflation , has not been seen in Britain since March 1960 , which was one year before construction started on the Berlin wall and two years before the Beatles released their first single . John F Kennedy did not become president of the USA until one year later , while the British prime minister at the time Harold McMillan was revealing plans to dismantle the Empire by agreeing independence for many former colonies . The Centre for Economics and Business Research said : ‘ Unlike in the Eurozone , where there is a risk of a negative spiral of falling prices and weakening economic performance , the UK ’ s bout of deflation is expected to be short-lived and virtuous , as the declining prices of essentials increase household spending power . ’
Supermarket price war has seen cost of milk , bread , eggs and chicken drop . Score: 6