Retail Figures Encouraging
Written by JDPGlobal | Thursday, 21 July 2005
The retail sector is, according to the latest data, not as bad as it first seemed. Retail sales, paralleled to consumer spending, grew at a confident rate when examined over a period of one and a half years, (up to June 2005).
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) retail sales grew 1.3 percent which means that the annual rate of sales has risen by 1.7 percent, from 1.3 percent in May of this year.
On a three-monthly basis, retail sales rose by 0.69 percent compared to the last quarter, meaning that this represents the largest growth since November 2004.
However, the picture is not as rosy as some may think. Compared with the same period in 2004, sales in the three months to June were up 1.59 percent. This amount of growth is the lowest annual growth since February 1999.
