UK retail sales sees growth

The UK saw underlying growth in retail sales volume as sales increased in February following a weak January. The volume of retail sales in the three months December to February was 1.1 per cent higher than in the previous three months. This follows 1.0 per cent growth in the three months to January and compares with an increase of 0.3 per cent at the same time in 2006. The highest three-monthly growth was for non-store retailing at 4.8 per cent. This mainly reflects continued strong growth by online and mail order retailers. Compared with the same period a year ago, total sales volumes in the three months to February 2007 were up 4.1 per cent, the highest since December 2004.

Analysis of monthly figures shows that the total sales volume increased by 1.4 per cent between January and February, the largest monthly increase since January 2005. There were robust increases in February for clothing stores at 4.7 per cent, the highest growth for this sector since December 2002. The unadjusted value of retail sales for the three months to February was 4.4 per cent higher than in the same period a year earlier. The average weekly value of sales in January was £4.6 billion, 4.7 per cent higher than in February 2006.