MORRISONS is cutting the price of 935 products by an average of 20% and Asda is reducing the price of fuel to help shoppers save after the excesses of Christmas.

The Bradford-based chain will drop the prices of store cupboard favourites such as tinned tomatoes, cereal, sandwich fillers, kids’ lunchbox snacks, ready meals and multivitamins.

Customers have said that saving money in January is important to them, as credit card bills from Christmas land and they re-stock their cupboards with healthy foods and winter warmers.

Group customer and marketing director Andy Atkinson said: “We’re listening to customers who are telling us that their budgets will be stretched in January, so we are cutting every penny we can on the essentials that will help them feed their families.”

The price cuts, which will be highlighted in store as Price Crunch, will typically be held for a minimum of 12 weeks.

Among the items being reduced are: Napolina Chopped Tomatoes 400g cut from £1 to 50p, Morrisons Tuna & Sweetcorn 400g cut from £2 to £1.75, Silver Spoon Granulated Sweetener 75g down from £1.60 to £1, Fray Bentos Steak & Kidney Pie 213g down from £1.50 to £1 and Weight Watchers Chicken & Lentil Tikka Masala 380g cut from £2.50 to £2.

Morrisons are hoping to maintain its market share in the face of competition, particularly from the likes of Aldi and Lidl who have been increasing sales.

Today, Morrisons are due to issue a statement on their trading over the festive period when the chain cut the cost of its core basket of 100 customers’ favourite items by 23 pence.

The basket included the core items that customers need at Christmas including cranberry sauce, tin foil and sprouts and is used by the company to judge its competitiveness during the festive season.

Customers told Morrisons they did not want the cost of Christmas to rise.

It was the second year that the cost of the basket has fallen.

Meanwhile, three supermarket chains are cutting petrol and diesel prices amid claims that fuel retailers are overcharging motorists.

Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons announced they will reduce the cost of petrol by up to 1p per litre and diesel by up to 2p per litre this week.

It is Asda's seventh fuel price drop in the past three months, cutting pump prices for a litre of petrol and diesel by 14p and 11p respectively.

The firm's national fuel price cap will be £1.14p per litre of petrol and £1.24 per litre of diesel.

Asda and Morrisons will implement the new prices today, while Sainsbury's will make the change tomorrow.

Asda’s senior fuel buyer, Dave Tyrer said “As a result of wholesale prices recently falling we’ve been able to pass these savings onto our customers.”