The Office for National Statistics has reported retail sales figures in Great Britain for May:
Retail sales volumes fell by 2.7% in May following a rise of 1.3% in April.
Non-food store sales volumes fell by 1.4%, Food fell by 5.0% following strong growth of 4.7% in April. Clothing sales volumes fell by 1.8%.
Retail sales had been expected to fall by 0.5%.
Charlie Huggins, Manager of the Quality Shares Portfolio at Wealth Club said, “Cracks in consumer spending may finally be starting to appear – retail sales volumes came in much worse than expected in May.
The sales decline was broad based with every category seeing weakness and online spending also falling.
Food sales were especially weak, giving up all their gains in April, and a bit more. Clothing also had another weak month suggesting that consumers may be cutting back on discretionary purchases.
It’s only one month, but these figures do not paint a great picture. Cracks in the UK economy are starting to appear and consumers are starting to feel less confident. This will intensify pressure on the Bank of England to cut rates sooner rather than later.
