UK Retail Sales Grew 1% in August

September 20, 2017 Share Print 0

UK retail sales grew by 1% in August compared with the previous month, with sales of clothing and non-essential items reported as strong.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also said that compared with last August, sales volumes were 2.4% higher.
It was the 52nd month in a row that sales have risen.

The ONS also said that prices for non-food sales had risen at their fastest rate in 15 years. It added the underlying pattern was of growth.

The figures add to evidence of rising inflation which has been fuelled, in part, by the drop in the pound’s value since the Brexit vote.

Last week, the Bank of England said this was likely to peak at 3% from its August figure of 2.9%.

The bank said it was likely to raise interest rates if inflation and the economy continued to remain strong.

The figures show higher prices had failed to stop consumer spending, despite the squeeze on wages, which have not been rising as fast as inflation.

Official figures last week showed wages in the three months to July were 0.4% lower in real terms than in 2016.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.