Tesco says grocery inflation has lessened as it plans £500m efficiency savings

Profits near £2.3bn for supermarket, which is ‘conscious things still difficult for many customers’

Tesco has said inflationary pressures in the UK grocery sector have “lessened substantially” as it announced plans to make £500m in efficiency savings in the year ahead.

As expected, the country’s biggest supermarket chain revealed pre-tax profits had soared 159% to almost £2.3bn from the previous year when it incurred high impairment charges on stores, while sales rose 7.4% to almost £61.5bn.