UK sees growth in retail sales
High street retail sales growth in the UK sped up in November but hopes are fading that the momentum will carry on into the new year when VAT rises, the CBI said today.
The business lobby group’s distributive trades survey showed a balance of 43% of retailers reported a rise in sales in November against a year earlier, with grocers and clothing retailers the main winners.
This was a significant improvement on October’s balance of 36%.
But the balance that expect the sales boost to continue for the next three month halved from 22% in October to 11% in November.
Hopes for the important pre-Christmas trading period have strengthened slightly since October, however.
Ian McCafferty, CBI chief economic adviser, said: “High street sales growth held up well in November and retailers are hopeful that the run-up to Christmas will be just as strong.
“However, looking into the New Year, retail sales growth may lose some of its sparkle as consumers rein in spending after Christmas.”
Samuel Tombs, an economist at Capital Economics, doubted that activity was as strong as the survey suggested because other economic data, such as that produced by the Office for National Statistics, had been much less encouraging.
“Any boost to sales from consumers trying to beat the VAT rise will only be temporary,” he cautioned.
