UK retailers have this month suffered their sharpest year-on-year fall in sales volumes since May 2010, a key survey has revealed.
The latest distributive trades survey, from the Confederation of British Industry, underlines the troubles facing retailers and consumers as the UK economy struggles to sustain recovery even before implementation of the bulk of Chancellor George Osborne’s swingeing cuts in public spending.
Samuel Tombs, UK economist at consultancy Capital Economics, said: “August’s CBI distributive trades survey continues the recent run of very weak data on the consumer sector.
“Whichever way you look at it, it’s clear that fiscal austerity, rising inflation and increasing unemployment are combining to put an end to any recovery on the high street.”
Noting that the survey had been conducted between July 28 and August 16, Mr Tombs said: “It looks as if the recent falls in equity prices and the riots, which both occurred at the start of the month, may have taken their toll on consumer confidence and spending.”
Forty-six per cent of retailers said their sales volumes in the first half of August were lower than in the same period of last year, and only 31% said they were higher. The rounded net 14% reporting that their sales in August were weaker than a year earlier signalled the steepest year-on-year drop in volumes since May 2010.
The CBI survey signalled a sharp fall in sales in the durable household goods, and hardware and do-it-yourself categories. And clothing retailers signalled their steepest year-on-year fall in sales since August 2009.
However, grocers saw a return to year-on-year growth in sales in August.
Overall, retailers predicted a further year-on-year fall in sales volumes in September.
And they were more negative about the general business situation than they have been at any time since February 2009.
A net 7% of retailers reported that their employment levels in the first half of this month were lower than at the same time last year.
However, the net 1% predicting employment levels next month would be lower than in September last year was the least negative prediction on employment since February 2004.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article