The UK’s retailers suffered from heavy rain in July on top of the impact of high inflation with sales growth dropping to an 11-month low, a survey showed on Tuesday.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said retail sales values rose by 1.5% compared with July last year, less than half the 12-month average growth rate of 3.9% and down from this year’s peak of 5.2% from February.
The BRC said clothing and footwear retailers, which normally get a boost in summer, saw sales drop, contributing to a 0.5% fall in overall non-food sales in the three months to July while Food and drinks sales grew at their slowest pace since the winter, also partly due to last month’s heavy rain.
Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said:
“The slowing pace of retail price inflation fed through into slower sales this July. Spend was further depressed by the damp weather, which did no favours to sales of clothing, and other seasonal goods. Online spending was down again year on year as the post covid trend back to stores continued, leading to the lowest proportion of non-food sales online since the pandemic began.
“While consumer confidence is generally improving, it remains below longer term levels. And with last week’s rise in interest rates pushing mortgage rates up ever higher, the Government must get a handle on the economy, offering a solution to languishing GDP growth in a way that supports both households and businesses. Only by creating the economic conditions for future growth, will we see a meaningful improvement in the outlook.”
