High street retail sales bounce back
British retail sales jumped 1.9% in January after a downwardly revised 1.4% December decline, the Office for National Statistics has reported.
However, the monthly pattern of retail sales has been affected by the extremely bad weather in both January 2010 and December 2010, and changes to the VAT rate in both years (VAT increased from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent on 1 January 2010 and from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent on 4 January 2011).
The month on month growth of 1.9 per cent in January followed a decline in retail sales volume of 1.4 per cent in December. The underlying picture may therefore be better considered by noting that in the two months taken together, sales increased by 0.5 per cent.
Year on year, the volume of retail sales in January 2011 was 5.3 per cent higher than in January 2010. Predominantly food stores decreased by 2.3 per cent, the 12th consecutive fall. Predominantly non-food stores increased by 9.5 per cent with rises across all sectors in this area. Other stores saw the largest rise at 15.8 per cent, driven by computers and telecommunications equipment and sporting goods and toys, followed by non-specialised stores at 10.7 per cent. Non-store retailing increased by 22.1 per cent, a record in this series and automotive fuel increased by 6.0 per cent.
Between December 2010 and January 2011 total sales volume increased by 1.9 per cent. Predominantly food stores increased by 0.3 per cent while predominantly non-food stores increased by 2.4 per cent. Within predominantly non-food stores, all sectors saw rises apart from other stores which decreased by 1.0 per cent. The largest rise was non-specialised stores at 5.7 per cent, a record for the series. Non-store retailing and automotive fuel increased by 2.7 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively.
