Retail Rising Once More

According to a new CBI survey on the sector, High Street retail sales have shot up in July at their fastest rate for over three years, dating back to April ’07.

According to the survey, the rise has been triggered due to annual summer sales at many stores, whilst the World Cup and warm weather have also served to bolster high street performance.  Clothing, leather, footwear and grocers are the areas experiencing the strongest growth.

The survey, covering 20,000 retail outlets, has also said that it expects sales to continue performing strongly next month as well.  More than half of retailers are seeing better results than at the same point last year, whilst only 18% have seen a drop.

This is a positive balance of 33%, three times as many as early predictions.  Original estimations set it at around 11%.

Lai Wah Co, the CBI's head of economic analysis, said: "Retailers are optimistic that strong sales growth will continue next month, which is promising.

"We still expect the recovery in overall consumer spending to be fairly restrained, however, given concerns about the impact of public spending cuts and weak prospects for real take-home pay in the coming year."

Posted at 04:15PM Jul 27, 2010 by Marc Stenton in UK Economy News  |  Comments[0]