The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said retail sales by volume rose 0.1% month-on-month in July in a reversal of the unexpected 0.1% fall seen in June.
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Consequently, retail’s contribution to the UK’s financial progress is now anticipated to say no within the latter a part of the yr. The sudden weak spot despatched sterling sharply down towards the greenback on Thursday.
Revised from an initial figure of +1.5 percent.
The rise was fueled by sales of electrical appliances, furniture and other household goods, the ONS said, aided by falling prices, in-store promotions and a healthy housing market. Last July, ecommerce sales accounted for 11.4% of all retail spending.
The “predominantly food stores” category in the ONS figures – which includes sales of alcohol – saw volumes lagging behind the retail industry as whole, up 1.3% over the year. Compared to the previous month, spending was down by 0.2%, with the quantity bought up by 0.1%. On the month, fuel sales dropped 2.6 percent. But economists had hoped for a rise of 4.4pc.
Analysts were expecting a 0.4% boost from June, which would have left sales up 4.4% year-on-year.
But economists had hoped that cheaper food and fuel would mean that consumers would be happy to spend their savings elsewhere.
Retail gross sales within the UK grew by zero.1pc in contrast with the earlier month, in line with disappointing specialists who had anticipated progress to be 4 occasions stronger.
Dominic Bryant, an economist at BNP Paribas, was more optimistic, saying that the “recent fall in oil prices should support real incomes and, therefore, retail sales in the coming months”.
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