Supermarket chain Tesco said yesterday it was spending £250 million sterling (€386 million) a year on "Britain's biggest ever price cuts". It said the average price of more than 1,000 major-brand products would be cut permanently by an average 10 per cent from Monday.

Rival J. Sainsbury said earlier yesterday it would guarantee customers the lowest prices on 1,500 everyday items including 100 top brands, at a net cost of £20 million. The moves come amid a growing price war between British supermarkets following the purchase of Asda by US group Wal-Mart Stores. Tesco, which has the largest share of the British supermarket spending, said the cuts would cost a quarter of a billion pounds a year and come on top of £130 million it had already spent this year on lowering prices.