UK July Retail Sales Register Biggest Rise Since 2008

UK retail sales in July registered its biggest annual increase since May 2008 reinforcing the perception that recession is slowly leaving the economy. At the same time, government borrowing was the largest on record for July.

Retail sales rose 3.3% in July from a year earlier, which was the biggest increase since May 2008, the Office for National Statistics reported Thursday. July’s increase was larger than the expected growth of 2.7%.

Predominantly food store sales rose 2% annually in July and non-food store sales grew 3.4%. Clothing and footwear sales increased 10.3%, while sales volume for household goods stores dropped 1.3% in July.

On a monthly basis, retail sales volume grew 0.4% in July, in line with expectations, but slower than June’s revised 1.3% increase.

Further, the ONS report showed that the seasonally adjusted value of retail sales increased 2.6% on a yearly basis in July. Meanwhile, the estimated total value of sales on an unadjusted basis was GBP 21.9 billion in July. The average weekly value of sales was GBP 5.5 billion.