Aldi and Lidl push up the price of milk and bananas as falling pound puts pressure on supermarkets
The two retailers have raised the price of four pints of milk from 95p to 99p
BUDGET supermarket giants Aldi and Lidl have started increasing the price of everyday essentials - including milk and bananas.
The two retailers have raised the price of four pints of milk from 95p to 99p - an increase of 4 per cent.
As a result, they are now on a par with Asda and 1p behind Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Tesco.
The increase is the result of the drop in the value of the pound, as supermarkets have been forced to contend with rising costs following Brexit.
Meanwhile, a pack of bananas is now 72p instead of 68p - again equalling the price of the major supermarkets, who sell loose bananas for 68p per kilo.
The move comes as Aldi and Lidl's growth has hit a five-year low, as their rivals cut prices and improve services.
Aldi said it still sells loose bananas for 68p per kg, but has changed its packs of bananas from a 1kg bag to 72p for five bananas.
The German chain said this means it remains the cheapest in the market - 8p cheaper than Tesco's five-banana pack, which is the cheapest of the big four.
But according to , industry sources have slammed these claims - saying five bananas are likely to weigh less than 700g.
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An industry sourced suggested: "This shows they are hurting. They have had to move up on price on the single most popular product line in any supermarket."
Meanwhile, Bruno Monteyne, an analyst at Bernstein Research, added: “Gone are the days when Aldi and Lidl can respond to every price cut by the supermarkets with an equally big price cut."
He added that Tesco has matched discounts on around 200 products - and it is too expensive for the budget chains to undercut Tesco even further.
A spokeswoman for Lidl told The Sun it has increased prices to reflect market movements.
Meanwhile, Matthew Barnes, CEO of Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “We absolutely guarantee that our customers will always pay the lowest grocery prices in the UK when they shop at Aldi.
“This has been verified time and time again by the industry’s most authoritative independent price survey, the Grocer 33, which in our most recent appearance showed Aldi to be 17.9% cheaper than our nearest competitor.”