The data is in line with the previous month’s growth – 3.4% – and NIQ said it is attributed to a period of hot weather and bank holidays that helped push up sales.

During the four-week period, visits to stores increased by 2.8%, equating to an additional 14.3 million visits compared with last year.

The number of online orders also rose 4.1%, and the online share of fast-moving consumer goods spend also slightly improved to 13%, up from 12.7% a year ago.

According to NIQ, there was no change in terms of spending on promotion over the last four weeks, with spend remaining at 25%.

Mike Watkins, NIQ’s UK head of retailer and business insight, said: “Over the last four weeks we’ve noticed that it was the warm weather which helped to move the dial in terms of shopper spending at the UK supermarkets, more so than food inflation, which is expected to remain at around 3% for the next few months.

“Despite this, many shoppers are still faced with limits to their discretionary spend, and this is having an impact on certain categories, so retailers must focus efforts on driving food and drink sales.”