UK retail sales show no growth in Sept, miss estimates

The office for National Statistics (ONS) published the UK’s retail trade report for the month of September, which showed that the UK consumer spending missed estimates across the time horizon, but managed to recover from the negative territory.

The UK’s retail volumes came in at 0.0% in Sept m/m, while the annualized retail spending rose 4.1%. Markets had estimated a 0.4% rise on a monthly basis, while a +4.8% reading was expected on yearly basis.

 Retail sales data excluding volatile items such as fuel also stood flat at 0.0%, while dropped 4.0% y/y.

ONS reports, “all store types except textile, clothing and footwear showed increases in the quantity bought compared with September 2015. Compared with September 2015 there were falls in average store prices across all store types, except textile, clothing and footwear stores and petrol stations; however, the fall of 1.1% in all retailing is the smallest fall we have seen since August 2014.”dh