Sainsbury CEO says food inflation about 3 pct

LONDON (Reuters) - Sainsbury, the country's third-biggest supermarket group, said on Wednesday it was seeing food inflation in its stores at a little over 3 percent, well below the reading of almost 8 percent in official statistics.

Chief Executive Justin King told reporters that the official figures did not pick up a lot of promotional activity by retailers or what customers are actually buying.

However, he added that inflationary pressures were likely to remain for the next six to 12 months.

"We would concur with the Governor of the Bank of England's letter (to the government) yesterday that there is perhaps six to 12 months of inflationary pressure still to come through the system," King said on a conference call.

(Reporting by Mark Potter, Editing by Dan Lalor)