UK retail sales rose in December as stores cut prices to lure consumers during the year-end holiday shopping season.
Sales including fuel rose 0.6 per cent from November, when they fell a revised 0.5 per cent, the Office for National Statistics said today. The December increase matched the median forecast of 21 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
From a year earlier, sales were up 2.6 per cent.
The gain may not be maintained as UK unemployment rises, inflation outpaces wage increases and consumer confidence falls. With global growth cooling and the euro-area crisis damping export demand, concerns are growing that Britain is heading for another recession.
"Retail-sales growth driven by price cuts can't continue indefinitely," said Samuel Tombs, an economist at Capital Economics in London. "The economy will probably head into a recession without the euro-zone crisis getting worse. The problems in Europe add to the headwinds facing the UK."
Price cuts helped demand for clothes, products such as computers, as well as sales at department stores. The annual price deflator, a measure of price increases, fell to a 16-month low of 2.4 per cent. Excluding fuel, retail sales rose 0.6 per cent in December from November and increased 1.7 per cent from a year earlier. UK retail sales rose in December as stores cut prices to lure consumers during the year-end holiday shopping season.
Sales including fuel rose 0.6 per cent from November, when they fell a revised 0.5 per cent, the Office for National Statistics said today. The December increase matched the median forecast of 21 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
From a year earlier, sales were up 2.6 per cent.
The gain may not be maintained as UK unemployment rises, inflation outpaces wage increases and consumer confidence falls. With global growth cooling and the euro-area crisis damping export demand, concerns are growing that Britain is heading for another recession.
"Retail-sales growth driven by price cuts can't continue indefinitely," said Samuel Tombs, an economist at Capital Economics in London. "The economy will probably head into a recession without the euro-zone crisis getting worse. The problems in Europe add to the headwinds facing the UK."
Price cuts helped demand for clothes, products such as computers, as well as sales at department stores. The annual price deflator, a measure of price increases, fell to a 16-month low of 2.4 per cent. Excluding fuel, retail sales rose 0.6 per cent in December from November and increased 1.7 per cent from a year earlier.
Bloomberg
