Supermarkets have recently been passing on increases in costs by food manufacturers to sales prices and refraining from holding discount sales that are intended for sales promotion, as food sales do not decline even when prices are increased.
However, this can be regarded as an overvaluation by retail stores that the relatively high level of the year-on-year rate of increase in sales since April 2015 – which actually is due to the base effect of the decline in demand after the consumption tax hike in 2014 – is an indication of the firmness in sales.