UK Retail Sales Recover In August

Retail sales grew by 0.2% in August thanks to the “back to school” season, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In July retail sales growth slowed, underscoring reluctance among South Africans to open their wallets because of rising borrowing costs set off by interest rate hikes and poor pay increases.

Zero inflation and the strongest wage growth in more than six years are putting money in the pockets of consumers and helping them drive the British economy.

Excluding auto fuel, growth in retail sales volume eased to 0.1 percent, as expected, from 0.3 percent in July.

Department stores and sellers of medical goods and toiletries, watches and jewellery, telecommunications apparatus and computers, and recreational goods recorded higher sales over July a year ago.

Retailers said the drop in food sales in August reflected large numbers of people going away on holiday, even after seasonal adjustments had been factored in. “Small stores were particularly boosted in August by sales of school uniforms, while most of the growth in large stores was coming from online”. This was the first increase in three months.

Sales in July were propped up by a 40.6 per cent rise in motor vehicle transactions compared with the same period previous year.

Likewise, sales excluding auto fuel rose at a slower pace of 3.5%, following July’s 4.1% increase.

FNB Economics senior industry analyst Jason Muscat said: “We suspect there are still base effects at play and once those are done, we do not think this kind of momentum in retail sales will be sustained”.