UK Retail Sales Growth At Fastest Pace in Three Years

British retail sales grew strongly again this month, with supermarkets luring shoppers with discounts and clothes stores doing well from cooler weather.

It was the third month of above-average sales growth reported by business group CBI in its survey of retailers and beat City expectations for a slowdown in October. Sales enjoyed their fastest growth for more than three years when counted over the three-month period of August to October.

Retailers were also upbeat about the month ahead, forecasting another strong rise in sales. However, fortunes were mixed across the sectors, with hardware and DIY suffering a fall in October, echoing signs of a cooling housing market as well as the recent announcement by Homebase that it is closing stores as households’ interest in home improvement projects wanes.

Sales also fell at chemists and in specialist food and drink, the CBI said.

 
But the headline findings were upbeat and contrast with a report earlier this month from the British Retail Consortium that high street and online stores had put in their weakest performance since the depth of the 2008-09 recession.

via The Guardian

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