UK Retail Sales Beat Expectations

UK retail sales figures have exceeded market expectations for June, rising by 0.7% compared with May.

Sales were up 1% on the months excluding the volatile petrol sales figures and also saw a fairly substantial 3.1% rise on the year according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

 According to the figures, the rise has been propelled by the healthy improvement seen in household goods and general stores numbers, rising a seasonally adjusted 1.6% and 1.5% respectively.  The growth rate for May was also revised in the latest figures, up to 0.8%.

The ONS have released the new data along with the UK car production figures for June, which also saw healthy improvement.  The sterling and FTSE 100 index have reacted positively to this, increasing 0.5% and 0.8% respectively.

Despite the healthy data, analysts are still urging caution over the rest of the year, believing the outlook for consumer spending is still very uncertain.  This comes after other figures showed that public borrowing has increased higher than expected, causing uncertainty over many households spending power.

Sales volumes at petrol stations dropped 2.2% versus May, bringing the total fall since June last year to 15.9%.  This means the total value of sales has fallen 3.6% since June 2009, despite rising pump prices.

Posted at 04:02PM Jul 22, 2010 by Marc Stenton in UK Economy News  |  Comments[0]