London shoppers in high street stay-away
Annual growth in London's retail sales suffered during April, the latest figures have suggested.A new survey says that last month shoppers spent 4.5 per cent more in central London compared to a year earlier.But the London Retail Consortium (LRC), which conducted the research, notes that in 2006 April's retail figures in the capital were up 11.9 per cent on the corresponding month a year previously.Last month's dip comes about despite warm sunny weather in the south-east of England, with the LRC attributing the drop in footfall to Easter falling in March in 2005 but April last year."This is a reasonable result bearing in mind the challenging comparatives with April 2006," said the trade association's director Kevin Hawkins."The declining rate of sales growth is in line with the UK trend but it should be noted that the increase of 4.5 per cent is the lowest reported figure since 2005. This suggests that the squeeze on household spending is getting tighter, which the recent hike in interest rates will aggravate."
Share this..
Related stories
Alistair Darling promises yet more salary curbs for the City
In what was possibly one of the more predictable responses to criticism of the government's handling of salaries and bonuses in the city, Alistair Darling has promised yet more action despite the fact the government's response to the problem was only issued a few days ago. Well aware that the public has been highly critical of the various U-turns and watered-down regulations released over the last...
Read MoreAn overview of the UK budget
Yesterday saw one of the most crucial budgets in history of the Labour Party at a time when the UK economy is feeling the pain and UK voters are looking elsewhere for optimism. While initially there was relief that on the face of it Alistair Darling had decided not to bring in substantial tax rises, under the surface in the small print, things are very different.
One of the more bla...
UK construction sector still under pressure
A report today by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply's has confirmed that the UK construction sector is still under immense pressure and the workforce has reduced yet again for the 14th month in a row. While there is no doubt that business is still tough, the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply's managers index showed that business levels are falling at their slowest rate fo...
Read MoreAre there cracks in the UK postal strike?
Only 24 hours ago the Communication Workers Union was suggesting a significant increase in the number of strikes between now and Christmas if an agreement could not be reached with the Royal Mail management. However, today the union leaders have expressed a wish to find a resolution to the problem in the short term and thus avoid potentially disastrous strike action between now and Christmas. So w...
Read MoreGloomy outlook predicted by cebr expert
Job losses will leave the economy "stagnant" this year, an economist has suggested.Charles Davis at the Centre for Economic and Business Research (cebr) said that unemployment would become "increasingly pervasive" in the UK, putting downwards pressure on growth.The expert also suggested that output would fall across the year.This is consistent with the government's own forecast, which predicts a o...
Read More