UK retail sales tumble 0.5%
By Oliver Haill
Date: Thursday 15 Nov 2018
(Sharecast News) - UK retail sales tumbled last month, official figures revealed on Thursday, confounding expectations for the sector to bounce back from the previous month.
The Office for National Statistics revealed that retail sales dropped 0.5% in October, although September's decline was revised up to 0.4% from 0.8%.
Excluding fuel, sales were down 0.4%, with a strong decline of 3.0% in household goods stores one of the key fectors. Economists had pencilled in a 0.2% overall bounce for October, with or without fuel.
Compared to the same month last year, retail sales were up 2.2%, down from a revised-down 3.3% from September. The market was expecting a 3.0% rise. Excluding a 1.8% decline in fuel, sales were up 2.7% versus forecasts of 3.3%.
In the three months to October, the quantity of retail sales was up 0.4% compared to the previous three months, a big slowdown from a strong summer of sales that reached a high of 2.3% in the three months to July.
Online sales as a total of all retailing increased to 18.0% from the 17.7% reported in September, with textile, clothing and footwear stores continuing a record proportion of online sales at 18.2%.
"Retail sales slowed after a buoyant summer with the mild autumn hitting winter clothes sales," said Rhian Murphy, ONS head of retail sales. "Household goods sales also fell in October following two consecutive months of strong home improvements sales. Consumers chose to purchase goods from many stores' websites as online sales continued to increase."
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