New figures from Kantar reveal that grocery inflation rose by 14.7% in the 12 weeks to July 9 - down from last month's rate 15.8% and the slowest rate of growth so far this year.
The average annual increase to household spending over the past 12 months now stands at €427.
Take home grocery sales in Ireland increased by 9.6% in the four weeks to 9 July as the average price per pack increased by 11.1%, Kantar said.
While value sales are up, grocery price inflation is the real driving factor behind this rather than increased purchasing, it added.
Kantar noted what while shoppers are returning to shops more often, they are picking up less volume per trip, while there has also been more out of home dining during summer.
Emer Healy, Business Development Director at Kantar, said this was the second month in a row there has been a drop in inflation, which is welcome news for shoppers.
"Although the rate is still high, with just a 1% drop since January, we expect to see further gradual decline over the coming months," she added.
Today's figures show that the grocery market here continues to see stronger own label growth (13.3%) compared to brands (7.6%) as shoppers look to save money.
Value own label saw the strongest growth year-on-year at 26.3% with shoppers spending €14.2m more on these ranges.
According to Kantar's latest Brand Footprint report, Irish shoppers value home-grown brands, with four out of the top five most chosen brands chosen being Irish.
The average Irish household buys of 81 different food and drink brands in a year, showing just how important brands are for Irish consumers.
Meanwhile, shoppers have not let the recent wet weather dampen their spirits with typical barbecue categories performing well as consumers spent an additional €3.6m on chilled burgers and grills, and ice cream combined.
Today's figures also show that online sales remained strong over the 12 weeks, up 6% year-on-year with shoppers spending an additional €9m on the platform, a significant boost on June's increase of €3.5m.
Dunnes holds the highest share amongst all retailers at 22.7% with growth of 14.5% on an annual basis. Kantar said its growth is down to shoppers returning to store more often as well as a 2.6 percentage points increase in new shoppers in-store.
Tesco holds 22.6% of the market with growth of 13.6% year-on-year. It had the strongest frequency growth amongst all retailers, up 18.4% year-on-year, contributing an additional €106.1m to overall performance.
SuperValu holds 20.7% of the market and growth of 6.7%. SuperValu shoppers make the most trips in store when compared to all of the retailers, an average of 23.5 trips, which is up 12% compared to the same time last year, Kantar noted.
Meanwhile, Lidl hit a new record share of 13.9% with growth of 14.4% year-on-year. More frequent trips contributed to an additional €47.2m to overall performance.
Finally, Aldi holds 12.5% of the market after growth of 9.7% year-on-year. A strong boost in more frequent trips has contributed an additional €41.6m to its overall performance.
