British supermarket group Sainsbury's is seeing the first signs of shoppers restricting their spending to cope with rising inflation, its boss said on Wednesday.

"It's early days, the first month with the (higher) fuel bills landing ... But we can see the early signs of customers being a bit more cautious, watching every penny, every pound," CEO Simon Roberts told reporters after Sainsbury's reported annual results.

He said for that reason the supermarket group had moved last week to lower prices across 150 of its highest volume fresh products.

(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)