–BRC: UK Oct Like-for-Like Sales +0.8% y/y; Total +2.4% y/y
–BRC UK Aug-Oct Like-for-Like Sales +0.7% y/y; Total +2.5% y/y

LONDON, (MNI) – UK retail sales values rose 0.8% on a like-for-like
basis on the year in October, slightly higher than September’s growth
rate of 0.5%, as food sales values, driven by higher inflation, picked
up.

The monthly retail sales monitor from the British Retail
Consortium-KPMG found total retail sales rose 2.4% on the year, up from
a 2.2% increase in September.

In the August through October period like-for-like sales rose 0.7%
on the year versus a 0.6% reading on the same basis in the prior month.
Total sales rose 2.5% in the three months through October, the same gain
as seen in September.

The driver behind sales growth has been food sales but this partly
reflects higher food inflation, the BRC said.

Clothing and footwear sales slowed. The homeware sales market
remained tough and often deal-driven, especially for larger purchases,
the BRC added.

Food retail sales in August to October rose 2.1% on the year on a
like-for-like basis, the same as the increase seen in July to September.
On the same basis, non-food sales slipped 0.2% in October having already
fallen 0.4% in the three months through September.

“Growth in food sales, partly created by inflationary pressure from
rising commodity prices, has produced a modest increase in overall
sales. But any gains made in food continue to be counterbalanced by the
non-food sector, where it’s a struggle to convince wary consumers to
part with their money,” Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail at KPMG, said.

“When you factor in inflation, the modest rise in total non-food
sales is actually a real-terms decrease,” she added.

The BRC’s October survey outturns are better than the sluggish
retail sales data published by the Confederation of British Industry.

UK retail sales growth slowed in October, with the reported sales
volume balance falling to 36 from 49 in September, according to the
CBI’s monthly distributive trades survey.

The BRC survey covered the five weeks from October 3 through to
October 30. The CBI survey covered only the first part of this survey
period, running from September 28 through to October 13.

–London newsroom: 4420 7862 7492; email: ukeditorial@marketnews.com

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