• Home
  • News
  • Fashion
  • Retail Sales Not As Bad As Expected

Retail Sales Not As Bad As Expected

By FashionUnited

loading...

Scroll down to read more

Retail sales fell only slightly in July from the previous month's blistering pace, official figures showed today. Sales dropped by 0.4% in July, the office for national statistics (ONS) reported, leaving them 4.4% higher than a year earlier. A drop was on the cards after surprisingly strong sales in June as hot weather brought up shoppers.

"It seems that people stayed at home in July and using the barbecues they had bought in June," Richard Batley, an economist at Halifax Bank, told Reuters. The ONS cautioned that not too much should be read in the July numbers as the three-month growth rates were broadly comparable to those seen in the second half of last year. The drop in sales last month should provide some relief for the Bank of England, which has expressed concern at the build-up of consumer debt.

"Today's data may soothe the Bank of England's worries about the consumer spending being out of control and may make markets re-examine their current belief that the next interest rate movement is more likely to be up," said Andrij Halushka, an economist with the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

Retail