Uk Retail Sales Show Stagnation In March

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Uk Retail Sales Show Stagnation In March

UK Retail Sales Show Stagnation In March

According to data released by the Office for National Statistics, retail sales data showed stagnation in March. This was rather surprising given the fact that inflation has gone down significantly in the UK lately.

This marks the first time since December that the retail sales have shown no growth at all. According to experts, sales were expected to grow by 0.3% in March.

Uk Cpi At Multi-Year Lows

However, the data from the ONS showed that no growth was recorded during March 2024. This comes as the ONS has also revised February's retail sales by +0.1%.

During March, an increase in sales was seen in the automotive fuel along with non-food store sales. However, both of these were offset by the decline seen in online retail sales and foot stores.

Against this backdrop, an expert added that the data from Q1 was disappointing for most of the UK retailers. With a 2% cut applied to national insurance along with lower inflation, it appears that these things have yet to show up in consumer spending.

UK's Finance Minister has introduced yet another tax cut aimed at social security in the month of April. That's also a factor that is expected to boost retail sales, but it has yet to show in the form of hard data.

Some experts believe that the retail sales data will change for the better in the next month as positive signs are seen in many UK retailers.

For starters, Tesco and Next have already made forecasts for a healthy growth in profit during 2024. At the same time, the consumer outlook also looks positive, according to them. After the release of March retail sales from the UK, the GBP lost its ground against the greenback as well as the EU.

Overall, the UK CPI is now at the lowest point in 2 & 1/2 years with increased expectations of a rate cut from the BoE. In this backdrop, it appears something is missing when we look at the stagnation of the retail sales in March.

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