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		</div><p>Supermarket Asda has seen sales slump nearly 6% over the crucial Christmas and New Year period.</p>
<p>The grocer said like-for-like sales had dropped 5.8% in the fourth quarter, with full-year like-for-like sales also slumping 4.7%.</p>
<p>The company &#8211; which is owned by US retail giant Walmart &#8211; said the falls came as it faced &#8220;fierce&#8221; competition in the grocery sector, which had put its market share &#8220;under pressure&#8221;.</p>
<p>The announcement came as the supermarket put further flesh on the bones of its turnaround strategy after revealing plans to invest £500m into cutting prices last month.</p>
<p>The company said the first phase of the price cuts would come into force on Thursday through its Pocket More scheme, which aims to make Asda cheaper than Tesco, Sainsbury&#8217;s and Morrisons on 1,600 lines.</p>
<p>It also confirmed that it would use the investment to step up its battle against discounters like German rivals Aldi and Lidl.</p>
<p>Andy Clarke, president and chief executive of Asda, said that, amid the continued tough trading environment for grocers, the supermarket&#8217;s performance was &#8220;commendably stable&#8221; as some of its rivals had suffered &#8220;severe falls in profitability&#8221;.</p>
<p>He added: &#8220;We have steered a careful course through this very turbulent period for the industry and through a complex set of challenges.&#8221;</p>
<p>The fourth-quarter like-for-like sales to January 1 2016 were worse than analysts expected and continued a tough period for the supermarket, which saw like-for-like sales fall 4.5% in the third quarter.</p>
<p>It second-quarter sales also dropped 4.7% &#8211; its worst ever quarterly sales slide.</p>
<p>It comes as Morrisons posted a 0.2% rise in same-stores sales for the nine weeks to January 3, while Tesco reported a 1.3% rise in like-for-like sales over the six weeks to January 9.</p>
<p>Sainsbury&#8217;s posted a 0.4 like-for-like sales fall in the 15 weeks to January 9, which was lower than expected.</p>
<p>The Big Four supermarkets have come under increased pressure from German discounters Aldi and Lidl, which have carved out a slice of the UK grocery market and sparked a supermarket price war that has seen prices fall for more than a year.</p>
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