UK Retail stores rose unexpectedly last month, official figures have shown. Total sales volume climbed 0.3% in November from the previous month, the office for National Statistics said. Sales were up 1.5% from a year ago.
Analysts had been expecting the sales to fall from November and recent surveys have suggested that the trading is weak. The rise in monthly sales was led by household goods, which were up 3.9% in November – their biggest monthly increase since July 2007.
Food sales were up 0.2% for the month, while those of clothing and footwear were down by 0.1%. The rate of overall sales made by the Internet was 3.8%, up from 3.2% in October. Analysts had been expecting retail sales to fall by 0.6% in November.
“Early Christmas shopping could explain the part of the strength, but it does not really tally with the weakness in the consumer confidence nor the data seen in the CBI and British Retail Consortium Surveys”, said James Knightley, an economist at ING.
The British Retail Consortium said that last week, the total UK Retail sales had fallen in consecutive months for the first time in at least 13 years.