Partner Article

Retail sales fall by 0.8%

Sales in the UK retail industry fell by 0.8% last month, providing a sharp contrast to the growth witnessed during December and January.

The decline was far bigger than expected, but despite this sales volumes were still 1.7% higher than the same period in 2011. Many economists had expected that spending was going to moderate significantly after December and January’s bumper growth figures.

Commenting on the news, Richard Driver, an analyst for Caxton FX said: This morning’s UK retail sales figure certainly caught the market by surprise.

“The -0.8% m/m is very disappointing and the slight downward revision to the previous two month’s figures is a reality check for the retail industry.”

Yesterday’s Budget announcements also indicated that UK households will continue to feel the financial pinch for the rest of the year. Nonetheless, a fall in inflation and with growth slowly picking up, retailers have some reasons to be optimistic.

He continued: “It is not all doom and gloom however, as some high street heavyweights like Next and Debenhams posted some decent profits recently and with the Olympics on the horizon, as well as the relaxing of Sunday trading laws, the UK retail sector could be in line for a much-needed boost.

“We were expecting to see surging petrol prices provide a boost to non- fuel sales as consumers look for more cost-effective ways to spend their money but this simply wasn’t the case.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .