London retail boost fuelled by Easter lift April 18, 2010 RETAILERS in central London saw an almost ten per cent rise in sales last month – fuelled by a booming Easter. The figures, based on a comparison with March last year, showed that the weak pound and an increase in Chinese visitors over the holiday helped to keep tills ringing, with a 9.9 per cent [...]
Debenhams profits up but refit hits sales April 13, 2010 DEBENHAMS posted a profits rise yesterday but sales only rose slightly – as a massive store revamp scheme took its toll.? The store posted half-year profits before tax and exceptional items of £123.6m – a rise of 18.6 per cent. The chain is refurbishing stores as part of its move away from concessions towards more [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
BRC: Food price inflation slumps in March to its lowest level in three years April 6, 2010 FOOD price inflation fell to its lowest level in three years last month, according to the latest data published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) today. The BRC said that food price inflation was just 1.2 per cent in the year to March – down from 1.3 per cent in the year to February, despite [...]
Darling lowers 2010 borrowing forecast March 24, 2010 CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling yesterday announced an £11bn reduction in the Treasury’s borrowing forecast for 2009-10 to £167bn and reiterated his pledge to halve the budget deficit within four years. Under new forecasts announced during the Budget, public borrowing will fall to £74bn in 2014-15, the end of the forecast period. As a share of GDP, [...]
High street sales bounce back after sterling falls March 14, 2010 RETAIL sales in London rebounded in February with a like-for-like surge of almost ten per cent fuelled by a drop in the value of sterling. The rise came after a dismal start to the year as freezing conditions kept shoppers at home. Across the UK sales were only up an average of 2.2 per cent [...]
Retail sales bounce back after miserable January March 8, 2010 BRITISH retailers bounced back in February after a miserable start to the year, posting a 2.2 per cent rise in like-for-like retail sales values, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said today. But the BRC cautioned against reading too much into these figures as the growth is compared with very weak figures a year ago when [...]
Economic Diary March 7, 2010 IT IS a busy week ahead on the economics front once again. While last week was dominated by central bank decisions from across the world and independent surveys, this week we will see a slew of statistics that may or may not confirm rebounding consumer confidence and output. UK February Sales figures due In the [...]