SCOTLAND’S retailers claim high streets are being hit by the current uncertainty over the UK’s European Union membership.
The number of shoppers has fallen significantly compared to this time last year.
Online sales have also dipped, according to new statistics published by the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC).
Read more: Scots Tory MSPs divided over EU
Analysts blamed the uncertain outcome of the EU referendum as well as poor weather and a rise in unemployment.
The figures are released as the CBI today warns that the economy is currently under a “dark cloud’ – caused in part by the EU vote.
Last week both Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, and the head of the IMF Christine Lagarde warned that leaving the EU could trigger a recession.
The SRC figures show that there was a 6.2 per cent fall in shopper numbers in April compared with the same month last year.
Diane Wehrle, from retail body Springboard, which collects the figures, said: “April’s footfall figures certainly echo the high street decline seen over recent months, which can be attributable to the poor weather for this time of year, but with digital sales and retail parks also slowing down it signifies something more at play.
“The rise in unemployment and economic uncertainty in this pre-EU referendum period has undoubtedly adversely impacted consumer activity.”
Read more: Kezia Dugdale launches Scottish Labour’s bid to remain in EU
She added: “We know that cuts in retail spending are the first line of defence against threats to household budgets when consumer confidence is knocked.”
Meanwhile, the CBI warns uncertainty over the EU vote will put the brakes on UK economic growth this year and next.
Business leaders warned of a “chilling” effect on investment.
Carolyn Fairbairn, the director general of the CBI, said: “A dark cloud of uncertainty is looming over global growth, particularly around weakening emerging markets and the outcome of the EU referendum, which is chilling some firms’ plans to invest.”
She added: “We are in an unusually uncertain period.”
But Leave campaigns have warned of ‘Project Fear’ warnings over the economy.
Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith: “I wouldn’t expect any major economic authority to be on our side in this argument.
“I would be completely unusual for all of these institutions not to want to back the status quo.”
The Chancellor George Osborne is facing demands to explain his role in the Bank of England and IMF warnings.
Leave campaigners have accused the UK’s central bank of going beyond its remit.
There have been been calls for Mr Carney to resign.
Mr Duncan Smith has now urged Mr Osborne to explain if he had any hand in the back-to-back reports published last week.
Read more: Scottish EU referendum votes could have 'potentially decisive impact'
Mr Carney defended the bank, insisting it had not strayed in to the wider referendum debate.
He said that the central bank had a duty to explain its assessment of the potential risks to the economy.
“We don’t just have a responsibility to be fair and not pop up after the vote and say ‘Oh by the way this is what we thought at the time’ but we also have a responsibility to explain risk and then take steps, because by explaining what we would do to mitigate them we reduce them. That is the key point - ignoring a risk is not to reduce it,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme.
“If we’re taking a judgment as a committee and changing policy because of it - we’re putting out billions of pounds of liquidity facilities, we’re getting banks to raise capital against these type of risks ...we have a duty to explain that to the British people and to Parliament.”
The Bank of England also said last week that Brexit could lead to a fall in the value of the pound.
Alan Johnson, chairman of the Labour In For Britain campaign, said: “These are serious warnings from the Governor of the Bank of England on the impact that a British exit from Europe could have on our GDP, employment and interest rates.?
“There is no credible economic case for Britain to leave Europe. From the IMF, the OECD and the Bank of England, the case to remain is overwhelming. Labour is fighting this campaign to defend the working people who are better off with a Britain that remains in Europe.”
Meanwhile, Commonwealth business leaders urged the UK to stay in the UK.
Leave campaigners argue a Brexit would allow the UK to trade more with Commonwealth countries.
But Chandrajit Banerjee, from the Confederation of Indian Industry, said that access to European markets through the EU was a “key driver for Indian companies coming to the UK”.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel