- July retail sales -0.5% vs -0.5% m/m expected
- Prior +1.0%; revised to +0.7%
- July retail sales +1.6% vs +2.2% y/y expected
- Prir +4.2%; revised to +3.8%
- July retail sales (ex autos, fuel) -0.9% vs -0.5% m/m expected
- Prior +1.1%; revised to +0.9%
- July retail sales (ex autos, fuel) +2.3% vs +3.3% y/y expected
- Prior +5.4%; revised to +5.0%
The drop in July comes mostly from non-food store sales as well as non-store retailing, with ONS noting that the lower activity in July can be attributed to “demand being brought forward to June because of earlier than usual promotional activity”.
Of note, department store sales fell by 1.4% on the month while textile, clothing, and footwear store sales fell by 2.7% on the month. Meanwhile, non-store retailing fell by 3.6% on the month. As for food store sales, that saw a jump of 0.5% on the month in July with supermarkets benefiting alongside retailers selling alcoholic drinks and beverages – driven by “promotions, the hot weather, and the World Cup”.
Besides that, fuel sales also rebounded strongly in July and was up 3.8% on the month (after a 3.6% drop in June).
All in all, UK retail sales is still holding up decently despite some volatile months. It will be interesting to see how things play out now after the World Cump bump is over. For the time being, this isn’t that much of a troubling data point for the BOE. As things stand, inflation remains the number one enemy for the central bank.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.