LONDON (AFP) – British retail sales rebounded surprisingly in January on falling fuel costs and discounting by online and physical stores, official data showed on Friday.
Total sales by volume grew 0.5 per cent last month after a 1.2-per cent drop in December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.
Analysts forecast a slight drop in January sales.
“After December’s steep fall, retail sales picked up slightly in January,” noted ONS director of economic statistics Darren Morgan.
“In the latest (recorded) month, as prices continue to fall at the pumps, fuel sales have risen.
“Meanwhile, discounting helped boost sales for online retailers as well as jewellers, cosmetic stores and carpet and furnishing shops,” Morgan added.
At the same time, food sales dropped 0.5 per cent in January, the ONS said, following large price rises over the past year.
It added that total retail sales were 1.4-percent lower compared with before the start of the Covid pandemic in early 2020.
Earlier this week, official data showed British annual inflation last month slowed to 10.1 per cent, although the level is still massively higher than a year ago after the situation in Ukraine fuelled food and energy prices.
“Despite the monthly rise in retail sales and slowing rate of inflation in January, the cost-of-living crisis is expected to continue to have an impact on retail performance for much of 2023,” said economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research Josie Anderson.
“Food prices have risen substantially over the course of the past year, meaning many people cannot afford to buy the same volume of food that they did a year ago,” she added.
