December fall in consumer spending
Footfall Index shows lower levels of customer traffic
January 16 2003
The latest customer traffic figures from retail business information specialist Footfall shows a December decrease in consumer spending.
FootFall is predicting a decrease of -1.3 per cent in seasonally adjusted retail sales volumes for the five weeks to January 5. This brings the annual increase of seasonally adjusted retail sales down to 3.3 per cent, the lowest level for over 2 years.
Dr Ian Wilcock, director of business development at FootFall, said: “These are disappointing numbers which show that very buoyant post-Christmas sales were not enough to compensate for widely reported sluggish pre-Christmas numbers. With this more modest growth in consumer spending, the Bank of England may feel more able to reduce interest rates.”
In the week starting January 6, customer traffic was down 10.8 per cent n the previous week, and down 7.9 per cent year-on-year.
FootFall calculates its Retail Sales Volume Indicator by examining changes in visitor numbers to over 100 major shopping centres, retail parks and outlet centres, covering more than 6,000 retail outlets.
