BRC: VAT hike will destroy 163,000 jobs May 26, 2010 RAISING VAT to 20 per cent would cost thousands of jobs and pull billions of pounds of consumer spending out of the economy, the British Retail Consortium warned today. Cautioning chancellor George Osborne there is no “silver bullet” to reduce Britain’s budget deficit without harming the recovery, the BRC said hiking VAT from its current [...]
Shop prices rose last month but stability forecast May 4, 2010 SHOP price inflation rose to two per cent in April on a year earlier compared to 1.2 per cent in March, according the latest survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Rising costs as a result of higher commodity prices were the main reason behind the increase. The BRC’s director-general Stephen Robertson said: “With commodity [...]
London sales are slowed by volcanic ash May 16, 2010 RETAIL sales growth in London has slowed after the ash cloud crisis took its toll, according to the British Retail Consortium. Sales were up 3.6 per cent in April while they had jumped by 5.1 per cent in the same month last year. The volcanic ash cloud which billowed across Europe grounded flights for six [...]
Hornby set to reveal £1bn Boots profit May 16, 2010 ANDY HORNBY, the man associated with the near-collapse of HBOS, will return to the limelight today as he announces an estimated £1bn profit at the helm of Alliance Boots. Hornby is expected to say the private equity-owned healthcare and beauty products retailer’s trading profit for the year to 31 March grew at a faster pace [...]
Easter timing hits retailers May 10, 2010 THE timing of Easter, combined with consumers’ ongoing uncertainty, caused UK retail sales to fall 2.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis last month compared to April 2009, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) will say today in its monthly retail sales monitor. This year, only two days over Easter fell in April compared to all [...]
City: cuts are a good first step May 24, 2010 BUSINESSES applauded George Osborne’s decision to wield the axe on Whitehall spending yesterday, but warned the £6.2bn of savings were a drop in the ocean compared to deeper cuts on the horizon. The chancellor won praise for his decision to begin belt-tightening early, as he announced he was scrapping the Child Trust Fund, pulling the [...]
High street sales jump April 11, 2010 A RISE in high street sales will add to hopes the economic recovery is on track, with a three per cent like-for-like rise expected for March. The figures, to be released later this week by the British Retail Consortium, and KPMG, will be a boon for a sector that has been decimated by the downturn. [...]
THE WEEK AHEAD April 11, 2010 AFTER a slew of central bank monetary policy decisions last week, this week is dominated by consumer-focused data. In the UK, we’ll get the British Retail Consortium’s March figures and the RICS’ house price balance for last month at midnight tomorrow. Thursday at midnight sees the release of the March Nationwide consumer confidence survey. It [...]
High street sales leap in bumper easter April 13, 2010 RETAIL sales growth surged last month after a booming Easter for high street trade. The total value of sales rose by 6.6 per cent in March – the biggest upturn since April 2006 – according to the data from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG. The figures follow positive results from john Lewis and Marks [...]
Disappointing retail sales to hit GDP data April 22, 2010 RETAIL sales volumes only managed to grow 0.4 per cent last month, disappointing the market which had expected monthly growth of 0.6 per cent and dampening hopes of a strong first quarter GDP?growth figure today. In spite of an upward revision to February’s figure, retail sales volumes contracted by 1.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the [...]