British retail growth increases
19/09/2014
British retail growth increased significantly last month, according to official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The underlying picture looks to be positive, as August is now in the seventeenth month of consecutive growth, and the 3.9% increase this month is the largest since October 2001.
The main contribution to the rise in retail sales has been furniture stores, with a rise of 23.4% in sales since last month, which is the largest upsurge since records began in 1998. Electrical appliance stores also contributed to the increase, which may be due to consumers purchasing high powered vacuum cleaners before the EU energy saving regulations came into force at the end of August, banning certain types of vacuum cleaners from being sold in the EU.
The country’s economic recovery has been driven mainly by Britain’s consumers. It has also been helped by low interest rates and weak inflation that has encouraged consumers to spend. Prices in stores fell 1.2 % in August, the steepest decline in more than five years. Prices in food stores showed their first annual fall since 2004 as supermarkets waged a price war.
There has now been discussions to increase the record low interest rates Britain has been benefiting from, yet the report from the ONS earlier this week detailing Britain’s low wage growth has been a point of awareness in the debate.
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