Retail sales flop in Great Britain in December; China hits 5% growth target – business live
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Newsflash: retail sales across Great Britain shrank last month, as consumers took a cautious approach to Christmas shopping. Retail sales volumes dipped by 0.3% month-on-month in December, the Office for National Statistics has reported, missing forecasts of a 0.4% rise.
![[A chart showing UK retail sales]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/a1ba345617d4094f81dc67f99e089e6768ed2f3c/0_0_685_490/master/685.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The ONS reports that sales volumes at supermarkets fell, with food stores sales volumes down 1.9%, which was partly offset by a rise in sales at non-food stores such as clothing shops. That drop in food sales is surprising, as several retailers have reported strong festive sales. Tesco said it had its biggest ever Christmas, for example.
December’s drop in retail sales followed a small, 0.1%, rise in November. And over the last three months, the sales volumes (the amount of stuff bought in the shops or online) fell by 0.8% compared the three months to September. This suggests consumer spending weakened towards the end of last year – several surveys have suggested that confidence declined,.
However, there is a wrinkle – the ONS seasonally adjusts its data, to adjust for the impact of Christmas spending, and because Black Friday (29th November this year) fell in its December reporting period this year, which muddied the data. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, sales volumes rose by 10.0% in December!.
ONS senior statistician Hannah Finselbach says:. “Retail sales fell in December following last month’s slight increase. “This was driven by a very poor month for food sales, which sank to their lowest level since 2013, with supermarkets particularly affected.
