UK retail sales 'rose in January' (merged)

Cannon_Fodder

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7880428.stm


Sales of retail goods rose in January, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said, after shops cut prices to encourage consumers to keep spending.

On a like-for-like basis, retail sales rose 1.1% compared with a year earlier, the biggest increase since May 2008.

The strong overall performance was driven by food sales, which rose 5.1%. Sales of non-food items fell by 1.6%.

However, the BRC warned that economic conditions remained weak, and January's sales rise could be "just a blip".

By the end of January, sales growth had weakened as clearances ended, the BRC said.

Sales of clothing, footwear, homewares, and health and beauty products all fell.

Overall sales, which include the impact of new stores, rose by 3.2%, with food sales up 6.8% and non-food sales rising 0.8%.

Results 'skewed'

"These surprisingly good figures give some reason for optimism," said Stephen Robertson at the BRC, before sounding a more cautionary note.

"But the fundamentals haven't changed. Job fears are mounting. Consumer confidence is at record lows. It remains to be seen whether January's discount driven growth was just a blip."

Helen Dickenson at consultancy firm KPMG, which compiles the figures in conjunction with the BRC, also emphasised the impact of discounts.

"The results are heavily skewed by the continuation of a short-lived pick up in spending immediately after Christmas," she said.
The BRC/KPMG Retail Sales Monitor covers the four weeks between 4 January and 31 January.

bo_drinker

Usually a good time to have a sale maybe. Don't get too excited. Even supermarkets were having sales.

IveSeenTheLight

Sales of retail goods rose in January, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said, after shops cut prices to encourage consumers to keep spending.
On a like-for-like basis, retail sales rose 1.1% compared with a year earlier, the biggest increase since May 2008.
The strong overall performance was driven by food sales, which rose 5.1%. Sales of non-food items fell by 1.6%.
However, the BRC warned that economic conditions remained weak, and January's sales rise could be "just a blip".
By the end of January, sales growth had weakened as clearances ended, the BRC said.
Sales of clothing, footwear, homewares, and health and beauty products all fell.
Overall sales, which include the impact of new stores, rose by 3.2%, with food sales up 6.8% and non-food sales rising 0.8%.
Results 'skewed'
"These surprisingly good figures give some reason for optimism," said Stephen Robertson at the BRC, before sounding a more cautionary note.
"But the fundamentals haven't changed. Job fears are mounting. Consumer confidence is at record lows. It remains to be seen whether January's discount driven growth was just a blip."
Helen Dickenson at consultancy firm KPMG, which compiles the figures in conjunction with the BRC, also emphasised the impact of discounts.
"The results are heavily skewed by the continuation of a short-lived pick up in spending immediately after Christmas," she said. The BRC/KPMG Retail Sales Monitor covers the four weeks between 4 January and 31 January.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7880428.stm

twokcc

Believe these nos are done on actual qauntities sold (not value), so if all goods were at 70% off sales woiuld have to rise by 233% for traders to achieve same income as a year ago. Just goes to show how misleading 'statistics' can be.

Cannon_Fodder

"The BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor"

http://www.kpmg.co.uk/pubs/RSM%20Jan%202009%201-pager.pdf

page 2

Notes; The BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor measures changes in the actual value (including VAT) of retail sales from a sample of retailers. The Monitor measures the value of spending and hence does not adjust for price changes. If prices are rising, sales volumes will increase by less than sales values. In times of price deflation, sales volumes will increase by more than sales values.

Retailers report the value of their sales for the current period and the equivalent period a year ago. These figures are reported both in total and on a ‘like-for-like’ basis.

Cannon_Fodder

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1480395