The chief executive of Tesco has said inflation in the supermarket aisles is finally slowing but warned shoppers not to expect prices to return to where they were two years ago.

Ken Murphy, the boss of Britain’s biggest supermarket, said there were “encouraging early signs” that price rises were starting to moderate.

Tesco recently cut the price of everyday items such as broccoli and bread by as much as 16pc and Mr Murphy said these changes were a “good indicator that we are hopefully going to start to see prices continue to moderate through the rest of the year”.

The cost of other staples including milk and pasta have been cut at Tesco in recent months, after wholesale prices started to come down.

However, shoppers are still paying significantly higher prices than they were this time last year. A pint of milk currently costs 90p in its stores, compared to 65p last year, according to figures from Trolley.co.uk.