Tesco's profits halve in tough grocery conditions

The day before these results were released, Tesco (TSCO) announced that it would keep prices steady for over 1,000 everyday products until July and would cut milk prices for the first time since 2020. A sign of easing inflationary pressures, one might think. But chief executive Ken Murphy pointed to the “unprecedented levels of inflation in the prices we have paid our suppliers for their products, and the cost of running our own operations” as annual profits halved at the UK’s biggest supermarket due to higher costs and £982mn of non-cash impairment charges, mostly on property assets, as a result of higher interest rates.