THE director of the Scottish Retail Consortium has described a fall in the value of retail sales north of the Border in the first quarter as "unfortunate".
Seasonally-adjusted figures published yesterday by the Scottish Government showed that the value of retail sales in Scotland fell by 0.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the opening three months of this year. This was a significantly worse outturn than a corresponding 0.6 per cent decline in Great Britain as a whole. Scottish retail sales value had risen by 0.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Comparing the first quarter of this year with the opening three months of 2014, the value of Scottish retail sales was down by 0.2 per cent.
SRC director David Lonsdale said: "The dip in the value of Scottish retail sales in the early part of this year after positive growth in the previous quarter - and flat performance over the year as a whole - is unfortunate and mirrors the findings of our own Scottish survey.
"Lower prices in shops and at the petrol pump...have yet to translate into increased consumer spending at shop tills."
In Great Britain as a whole, the value of retail sales in the first quarter was up by 1.7 per cent on the opening three months of last year.
Mr Lonsdale has previously cited stronger economic growth and a sharper rise in house prices in other parts of the UK, notably London and south-east England, as possible reasons for weaker retail sales performance in Scotland.
Underlining the deflationary pressures on the high street, the volume of retail sales in Scotland was up by 0.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the opening three months of 2015 even though value was down sharply.
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