UK retail sales see minor increase in July
Thursday, 18 August 2011 10:28
Retail sales grew by a small margin in July, according to the latest release from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Sales volumes excluding petrol grew by just 0.2 per cent in July, after registering a 0.8 per cent increase in June as households reined in all but essential spending.
This was slightly less than the 0.3 per cent increase that most analysts were expecting and substantially down on the estimate of 0.6 per cent given by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) earlier in August.
From the data, it seems that the early summer sales brought forward consumers’ summer spend and that the momentum did not carry forward into July.
The value of sales in July 2011 increased by 4.3 per cent on July 2010, but this was due to inflation. The volume of sales in the same period was unchanged.
Inflation increased from 4.2 per cent in June to 4.4 per cent in July as measured by the consumer prices index.
Figures released yesterday showed that unemployment in the UK increased by 38,000 in June to reach 2.49 million.
Sales of clothing, footwear and household goods all fell in July, according to the ONS figures.
Consumers in the UK have cut back on their discretionary spending as concerns about job security, low or no wage increases and the increase in VAT have weakened demand.
Economic growth has been affected with the UK economy growing by just 0.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2011.
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