Further dip in UK retail sales
Commercial insurance
9th September 2009
Like-for-like retail sales in Britain fell by 0.1 per cent year-on-year during August this year, with the food sector continuing to outperform others, new data has revealed.
According to figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the results follow increases of 1.8 per cent and 1.4 per cent in June and July respectively and indicate that growth has not been sustained.
Particularly sharp falls were seen in furniture, clothing and homewares purchasing, although total growth including new stores was 2.2 per cent for the month, something that may interest businesses with retail insurance.
Strong growth continued, however, in non-food non-store sales - those by phone, internet and mail-order - which expanded by 7.9 per cent over the year.
Stephen Robertson, BRC director-general, warned: "As we head into autumn, we mustn't make too much of any positive sales growth because the comparison will be with very weak figures a year ago."
In related news, the BRC-Nielsen Shop Price Index also reported 0.1 per cent deflation for August 2009, the first contraction since February 2007.
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