UK Cost of Living Eases as Family Spending Power Continues to Rise, Says Asda

The cost of living has eased for families in the UK as the average household had £170 a week of discretionary income in April 2014, up £3 a week year-on-year.

According to Asda's Income Tracker, family spending power continued to rise for the seventh month in a row.

While families saw yet another boost to their incomes this month, the rate of growth slowed compared to the £7 ($11.79, €8.66) increase seen in March.

Asda said the slowdown was due to families benefiting from a much larger boost to their discretionary incomes last April, when the personal tax allowance threshold.

"This is now the seventh consecutive month of growth and families are telling me that they are feeling a real benefit of having more money in their pockets," said Andy Clarke, president and chief executive of Asda.

"Essential item inflation on food, petrol and energy continue to fall-providing welcome relief to budgets and growing confidence in sustained economic recovery-which I believe will continue for the foreseeable future."

"Although discretionary income growth has slowed this month, this has been driven by the specific impact of a lower year on year increase in the Personal Tax Allowance and a slight rise in Consumer Price Inflation."

The research also revealed that a 0.2% rise in inflation also contributed to slower growth this month as the price of clothing and rent accelerated.

However, inflation still remained below the Bank of England's target of 2%, standing at 1.8%, thanks to a slowdown in the rate of inflation on food, gas and electricity.

Homeowners saw a boost in their discretionary incomes too as mortgage interest payments fell year on year by 0.1%.

The figures come after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that the country's jobless rate dropped to 6.8% in the three months to March.