- Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC
The UK retail spending growth hit the highest level in four month in January, as consumers bought more big-ticket items like furniture. The British Retail Consortium reported retail sales values jumped 3.3% last month compared with a year ago, up from a 1.0% gain in December. Furniture and home appliances were the top performers, while discounts in the New Year sales boosted clothing and footwear sales. The report added to signs that Britons continued to spend freely, despite a gloomier global economic outlook. The Bank of England revised down its short-term outlook for both inflation and economic growth, referring to external and domestic headwinds as well as low price pressures and the major factors weighing down on the UK economy and production.
A separate report showed Britain's trade deficit widened in the final quarter of 2015 amid global market turmoil and a slowdown in emerging markets that hurt British exports. The gap between exports and imports increased from 8.6 billion pounds in the September quarter to 10.4 billion pounds, sparking concerns that UK's worsening trading position would be a drag on the economy's growth this year. Moreover, the UK's goods trade shortfall with the rest of the world widened by 1.9 billion pounds to a record high of 125 billion pounds in 2015. However, 2015 saw a record surplus in the UK's dominant services sector of 90 billion pounds.
© Dukascopy Bank SA