Member Article

Retail sales show slow growth

Retail sales for December continued to show growth on last year, although fell by 0.1% from the previous month.

According to figures from the ONS, year-on-year estimates of retail sales volumes continued to show upward movements, albeit with weaker strength than previous months.

Online sales saw rises of 11.8% in quantities and 10.4% in amount spent, compared with December 2011.

This December, the proportion of sales made online fell at a slower rate between November and December than seen in previous years.

Clothing and footwear performed particularly badly as quantities bought fell by 3.5% in December, compared with December 2011.

Household goods and non-food items saw an increase in the quantity of goods bought and amounts spent.

Sales at specialist food stores, off licenses and tobacconists fell on the same time in December 2011.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .