S. Africa Retail Sales Growth Slows Less Than Expected In July

Let’s hope they learned to adjust their stock accordingly from last year’s Indian summer!

United Kingdom online sales grew in August, compared to the same time a year ago , but fell compared to the previous month, new figures released by the Office for National Statistics suggest today.

Despite being a slowdown, the 3.3% increase in sales was better than the 2.4% that was expected.

Retailers are facing their worst quarter of growth for almost two years after official figures showed August sales volumes rose 0.2 per cent on the previous month, with sales of school uniforms helping to offset a drop in food takings.

Retail sales account for 5.6 percent of the British economy, which has grown for 10 consecutive quarters. A pick-up in wage growth this year, combined with inflation hovering around zero, has helped restore some of the spending power lost in the years after the financial crisis.

“Given this uncertainty, it seems likely that policymakers will want to hold off on any interest rate hikes until the picture becomes clearer”.

Clothing sales were responsible for the bulk of the increase, particularly school uniforms at smaller retailers.

Seasonally adjusted retail trade sales increased by 0.1% month on month in July after increasing by 0.4% in the month of June and falling 0.3% in May. He said: “It’s been another good month for retailers”.

Britain’s economy relies heavily on consumer demand for growth. Sales of textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods grew 0.8 percent and those of hardware, paint and glass went up by 0.5 percent.

“With consumer confidence running very strongly and the latest labour market numbers showing real pay in July rising at the fastest rate since 2002, the fundamentals are there for underlying retail sales growth to accelerate”, said Martin Beck, senior economic adviser to forecasting group EY Item Club.