UK retail sales recover in May, helped by housing market

British retail sales rose in May compared with the same month last year, helped by a recovery in the property market but still disappointing some retailers, an industry survey showed on Tuesday.

The British Retail Consortium said the value of total retail sales increased by 1.1 percent, after a 1.3 percent fall in April when the year-on-year comparison was hit by the early timing of Easter.

The BRC said furniture sales were the strongest since July of last year, excluding distortions caused by the timing of Easter. The increase reflected a recent pick-up in Britain’s housing market which last year lost some of its steam, it said.

Clothing and footwear sales fell by the most since September, hit by cool weather last month and by a surge in sales in May last year.

Food sales stabilised after a weak six months.

British consumers have helped to power the country’s economic recovery for the last two years and their spending is likely to continue with inflation around zero and wages slowly recovering from a long period of weakness.

Reuters

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.