- Helen Dickinson, Director General at British Retail Consortium
Retail sales in the U.K. rose less than expected in July as heavy discounting in the food sector and ongoing low food inflation caused less spending by consumers on food, according to the British Retail Consortium report. Like-for-like sales dropped 0.3% year-on-year and were down as much as 0.2% compared to the previous three-month period. Economists, however, had projected sales to rebound 0.55% following the 0.8% drop recorded June. Food sales was the main driver behind the decrease, with non food sales advancing by 2.4% in the three months to July, while a 3.5% slump during the period in food categories was enough to drag the index into the negative territory. Total sales rose 1.3% on an annual basis, indicating consumers are still willing to spend, albeit at a slower pace than the 12-month average growth rate of 2.3%. Online sales grew robustly, with non-food sales increasing 14.9% from the previous year.
Meanwhile, international bodies continue to paint an optimistic growth picture for Britain's economy. Recently the OECD joined the club of those, who have praised the country's economic performance, saying that its index of leading indicators continues to point that growth momentum remains above-trend rates.
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