UK retail sales suffer worst fall on record, BRC says

Source - BBC

 

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has recorded its worst fall in sales since records began in 1996, a further sign of difficult times on the High Street.

 

The BRC said total sales in March were down 1.9% on a year ago, although the early timing of Easter last year had an effect on the figures.

 

But the BRC said shoppers did not want to spend "unless they really had to".

 

Footwear was the only growth sector, as food and drink, clothing, homeware, electrical, and others all fell.

 

'Ongoing weakness'

 

Meanwhile, like-for-like sales were down 3.5%, in their worst showing in nearly six years.

 

Internet sales, which have been defying the general downward trend, showed their slowest growth since records began in 2008.

 

Internet sales were 7.5% higher than a year ago, much weaker than the 10.4% in February.

 

Clothes and book sales suffered their largest declines since 2009 and 2005 respectively.

 

"We have seen an emergence of new, lower spending patterns since the middle of January, which are currently continuing to trend downwards," said Helen Dickinson, head of retail at survey partner KPMG.

 

"Many retailers will not be able to sustain this ongoing weakness in demand beyond the short-term and are hoping for some good news around the extended bank holiday period and a feel-good factor driven by the royal wedding."

 

The poor sales figures came despite the fact that more consumers visited the High Street, separate figures suggested.

 

Research group Springboard said that footfall in town centres and High Streets across the UK rose by 7.8% in March compared with the previous month, and fell by 1.3% against a year earlier - the smallest annual decline in four years.

 

'Low wage growth'

 

There has been a string of gloomy outlooks recently from the likes of Next, Mothercare, HMV, Currys and PC World parent Dixons Retail.

 

The BRC pointed out that "uncomfortably high inflation and low wage growth have produced the first year-on-year fall in disposable incomes for 30 years".

 

"Falling disposable incomes and the fear of worse to come means people don't want to spend," added BRC director general Stephen Robertson.

 

"There's only so much discounts and promotions can do to overcome that."

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Okay, so, if it happens, tell me again, two consecutive quarters of negative growth would mean.......?

 

You know, this really should come as no surprise to anyone on Perspectives anyway, we've been going over this time and time again, but of course the moron that is Gideon Osbourne doesn't seem to grasp the facts that just about any Economics student could tell him....

 

YOU DONT CUT DURING A RECESSION......

 

There really is such a crushing predictability about this story, you honestly dont know whether to laugh or cry.... :rolleyes:

And from the Guardian...

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/ap...lan-b-viewpoint

 

"What does that mean? It means that Osborne's prediction that the economy is strong enough to ride out his planned spending cuts now looks heroically optimistic. Yesterday's downgrade of Britain's 2011 growth prospects to 1.7% is unlikely to be the last. If Osborne does not already have a plan B that involves a re-think of the speed and severity of his fiscal tightening he had better get one. Fast"

 

And from David Blanchflower, formerly of the Bank of England.

 

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-bl...ne-measures-imf

 

"This is pretty much the position of most economic commentators ­ I place myself in that camp along with Martin Wolf and Sam Brittan (Financial Times); Anatole Kaletsky (the Times); Larry Elliott (the Guardian) and Bill Keegan (the Observer). It is also the position of Nobel prize winners Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz and Chris Pissarides.

 

George Soros in interviews at the Bretton Woods conference this weekend argued that fiscal austerity was not appropriate when recoveries were fragile....Also of interest is that a number of the CEOs who wrote a letter to the Telegraph supporting Osborne's measures six months or so ago are now backtracking as the high street sales crumble"

 

Do we really need MORE evidence that these Austerity Cuts just aren't gonna work....?

 

And "Contractionary Fiscal Expansion"????? What the f**k are you on about you utter, UTTER tw@t...... Which is probably what Larry Summers (Former Obama and Clinton Chief Economic Advisor) really wanted to say, but kind of had to use more diplomatic language..... :rolleyes:

I'm actually looking forward to the UK economy dying on its arse. Hopefully it'll bring about the end of the coalition in time for another election and the tories getting removed from power.

 

Every cloud has a silver lining after all.

I'm actually looking forward to the UK economy dying on its arse. Hopefully it'll bring about the end of the coalition in time for another election and the tories getting removed from power.

 

Every cloud has a silver lining after all.

.

 

I sometimes wish that BJ had a 'like' function.... lol

 

what silas said.

 

BUT SERIOUSLY, monarchists and republicans were actually having a little protest outside the local school - some tensions flared and the republicans f***ed up the monarchists! WHAT NATION IS THIS?!

These statistics are so crushingly inevitable, the thing that surprised me most about that article was that UK retail records only began in 1996 :lol:

These statistics are so crushingly inevitable, the thing that surprised me most about that article was that UK retail records only began in 1996 :lol:

 

TBH, I was thinking the same thing... You would've thought that a "nation of shopkeepers" would've kept records a lot earlier..... :lol: :lol:

New figures show that, in the last quarter, the UK economy only grew by 0.5% - only enough to make up the ground lost in the previous quarter - meaning the economy hasn't grown atall over the last six months. This compares with growth of nearly 2% in the six months before that, when Labour's economic policies were largely still in effect. So much for Osborne's boast that the economy was "on the right track"...

I saw this on the news earlier and almost cried. I so wanted to hear Ostwats excuse this time

New figures show that, in the last quarter, the UK economy only grew by 0.5% - only enough to make up the ground lost in the previous quarter - meaning the economy hasn't grown atall over the last six months. This compares with growth of nearly 2% in the six months before that, when Labour's economic policies were largely still in effect. So much for Osborne's boast that the economy was "on the right track"...

Not even that. Revised figures for Q4 were 0.6% remember?

Not even that. Revised figures for Q4 were 0.6% remember?

 

Iirc the final estimate did revise it back up to -0.5%... might be wrong though.

 

Had to laugh when Cameron said it was a "huge success" that the economy was "growing again" earlier today... it only STOPPED growing solely because of them! It's like if someone stole £100 off someone and flushed it down the toilet, before fishing a tenner out of the sewer and expecting the person to be grateful.

The final revised figure for Q4 2010 was indeed -0.5%. The initial figure is always a first estimate with two revisions in the following weeks as more data is included.

Ginger Rodent (© Harriet Harman) gets demolished on Channel 4 News (from 4:16):

 

I can't spell or remember the C4 news presenters name, but that man is a LEGEND.

 

The ginger rodent needs to be exterminated [pun intended] what kind of moron actually says $h!t like that?