Official data shows volume of UK retail sales rose 0.9% last month as consumers took advantage of new year sales bargains
Hopes that the UK economy will avoid a double-dip recession received a major boost on Friday when official figures showed a sharp rise in spending in shops and online.
The Office for National Statistics said the volume of retail sales rose by 0.9% last month as consumers took advantage of bargain offers in the new year sales.
The City had been expecting a 0.4% fall in high street activity following a spending spree in the days leading up to Christmas, but the ONS recorded the first back-to-back increases in a December and January in eight years.
Officials said the main reason for the jump had been internet shopping and spending in department stores and supermarkets. Prices paid by shoppers were 2.2% higher than in January 2011, the smallest annual increase since November 2009, reflecting the pressure on retailers to shift stock in the sales.
Some analysts cautioned that the heavy seasonal adjustment of the raw spending figures at the turn of the year made interpreting the data difficult. Even so, the government will be relieved that spending appears to be holding up despite the squeeze on incomes caused by high inflation, rising unemployment and the crisis in the eurozone.
Retail sales account for less than half of total consumer spending, and do not include the purchase of cars or eating out.
The increase will ease fears that the economy will contract for a second successive quarter in the first three months of 2012, thereby fulfilling the technical definition of a double-dip recession.
Comments