YEAR-on-year growth in UK retail sales volumes has accelerated in recent weeks, even though consumer confidence has fallen, surveys show.
Subtracting the proportion experiencing a fall from that reporting a rise, the Confederation of British Industry’s distributive trades survey shows a net 49 per cent of retailers achieved a year-on-year increase in sales volumes in late August and early September. In the previous month’s survey, a net 24 per cent of retailers reported a year-on-year rise in sales volumes.
But GfK’s latest UK consumer confidence index, published today, shows a four-point drop between August and September to +3.
GfK highlighted a “dip in people feeling good about the wider economy and their own personal economic circumstances”.
Joe Staton, head of market dynamics at GfK, said of consumers’ views “The biggest decrease in the index this month comes in how we think the general economic situation in this country has changed over the past 12 months, and our expectations for the general economic situation in this country over the next 12 months.”
The GfK survey also shows a decline in people’s confidence about making major purchases.
The CBI survey, conducted between August 26 and September 15, shows the grocery sector and specialist food and drink retailers recording strong year-on-year growth in sales volumes.
It also signals strong trading for clothing retailers.
Rain Newton-Smith, CBI director of economics, said: “As the summer has been drawing to a close, consumers have been out on the high street boosting sales and orders for UK retailers.
“Low inflation and the recovery in wage growth are helping to stimulate consumer demand, but the slowdown in the global economy and tight [profit] margins mean retailers won’t get ahead of themselves as we head into autumn.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here