Retail sales in Britain went into reverse in July, bucking a three-month growth spurt, due to bad weather and inflation amid a cost of living crisis, the country's main statistical agency reported Friday. File Photo by Andy Rain/EPA-EFE
Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Poor summer weather and persistently high inflation saw British retail sales relapse in July falling 1.2%, their largest monthly decline since September, according to official estimates published Friday.
The drop in sales volumes, reversing three consecutive monthly rises, was led by a 2.6% fall in food store sales affected by unseasonal rains hitting supermarket clothing purchases but also retailers reporting lower food sales due to a cost of living crisis and rising prices of food, the Office for National Statistics' latest bulletin shows.
Food inflation, the pace at which prices are rising, fell to 14.8% in July but remains more than double headline Consumer Price Inflation of 6.8%, with consumers having to spend 16.4% more in July than in pre-pandemic February 2020 to purchase 1.8% fewer goods.
ONS said its analysis showed the wet and cool weather caused a sharp fall across the majority of retail sectors.
"It was a particularly bad month for supermarkets as the summer washout combined with the increased cost of living means sluggish sales for both clothing and food," ONS Survey and Indicators Deputy Director Heather Bovill wrote on social media.
While department store and household goods sales also dropped significantly, the rain drove shoppers online.
"The wet weather did mean a good month for online retailing, as discounting plus consumers shopping from the comfort of their homes boosted sales," Bovill added.
Non-food store sales volumes fell by 1.7%, following a rise of 0.6% in June, with retailers blaming reduced footfall due to the poor weather, but the arrival of the summer travel season kickstarted automotive fuel store sales which rebounded from a 0.6% fall in June to post a 0.7% rise.
Online retailers told the ONS that they believed promotions and discounting were behind a 2.8% sales volume jump in July, while consumers put off from trips to stores and malls by bad weather helped internet shopping increase its share of total sales volumes to 27.4%, up from 26% in June.
The retail sales figures come two days after the ONS reported that falling gas and electricity prices helped July inflation slow by 1.1% to its lowest level since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine caused prices to skyrocket, but that it remained at a three-decade high.
Food prices continued their upward track but rose more slowly -- 14.8% compared with 17.3% in July 2022 -- with falls in milk, bread and cereals prices, in particular, helping tame the headline inflation figure.
Underlying "core" inflation, however, which strips out prices of volatile items such as energy and food, remained unchanged at 6.9%.
