Retail figures show tough pre-Christmas condition

Conditions are toughening for customers and retailers as the crucial run-up to Christmas begins, said the British Retail Consortium (BRC). The BRC said the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) retail sales figures, confirm the BRC's findings that sales growth slowed sharply into September. But the 3.0 per cent year-on-year increase in sales values reported by ONS was still above the weak 1.0 per cent shown by the BRC's figures.Stephen Robertson, British Retail Consortium Director General, said: "With a number of major retailers reporting serious sales falls, ONS' claim that sales values are up three per cent on a year ago is high. Our figure is just one per cent. Both results are well below inflation, meaning real-terms sales falls.

"The official figures rightly confirm overall sales growth is slowing and conditions toughening for customers and retailers as the crucial run-up to Christmas begins.

"ONS' claim that small retailers are doing dramatically better than larger ones is hard to believe."

Commenting on differences between the ONS retail sales figures and the BRC's Retail Sales Monitor, Stephen Robertson added:

"We note that the UK Statistics Authority has recommended ONS publishes a margin of error for its retail figures in future and puts more emphasis on the long-term trend than, potentially volatile, month-to-month changes."

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