Sainsbury’s has revealed that total retail sales increased by 0.3% (excluding fuel) for the 16 weeks to 26 September 2015.

Volume and transaction sales also rose, although like-for-like retail sales decreased by 1.1% and falling fuel sales caused a combined total retail sales decline of -1.8%.

Food deflation was attributed as causing much of the losses, while key areas of development included an online grocery sales increase of over 15% and a nearly 13% growth in clothing.

Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe said: “Both volume and transactions grew as the decline in average basket spend in supermarkets continued to stabilise. While the market is clearly still challenging, with food deflation impacting many categories, we are making good progress on delivering our strategy.”

He said that, should current market trends continue, the company expected its full-year underlying profit before tax to be moderately ahead of its published consensus of £548m.