Ashton Whiteley: UK Shoppers Reduce Spending

Shanghai, China, November 27, 2017 (Newswire.com) - UK retail sales posted their first annual decline in 4 years in October as shoppers came to terms with rapidly increasing prices and weak salary growth.

Although the decline was less than analysts at Shanghai, China based investment house Ashton Whiteley had anticipated, official figures revealed a 0.3 percent decrease in sales on an annual basis.

Ashton Whiteley economists stated that this drop was the biggest since March of 2013 and added that there continues to be an overall state of solid growth in retail sales for the UK although this October paled in comparison to October of last year.

Fair weather also discouraged consumers from purchasing clothes for the winter season which contributed to the tepid sales data.

Sales volumes were significantly lower than before the Brexit referendum in June of last year when Britain voted to exit the European Union, causing inflation to rise and the pound to devalue.

Sales volumes in the third quarter were just 1.1 percent up from the same period last year which is the weakest growth rate since May of 2013.

Sterling rose marginally after the figures were released and British government bond prices decreased as the sales figures came in less negative than was indicated by several other retailers.

An economist at Ashton Whiteley stated that the data was in stark contrast to a survey which had painted a much bleaker picture and that things are now as bad as they are likely to get. Better wages and lower inflation in 2018 would go a long way to reversing this year’s downward trend.

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Source: Ashton Whiteley