UK retail sales steady in April

UK retail sales were flat in April, according data released on Friday by the Office for National Statistics.

Retail sales were steady on the month in April versus the previous month. This was ahead of analysts' expectations for a 0.3% decline.

On the year, meanwhile, retail sales rose 5.2%, surpassing expectations for a 4.6% increase. The ONS said clothing sales were boosted by warm weather, which helped to offset a drop in sales in other areas.

In the three months to April, retail sales pushed up 1.8%.

The data showed that online retailing accounted for 18.7% of total retailing in April compared to 17.7% in the same month last year, with overall growth of 10.1% versus April 2018.

ONS head of retail sales Rhian Murphy said: “Retail growth was strong in the three months to April with a record quarter for the online sector, driven mainly by clothing purchases, with warmer weather. Elsewhere, department stores continued to see their sales fall.”

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “April’s retail sales figures are a timely reminder that political uncertainty is having no discernible impact on households’ overall spending.

“The stability of volumes in April is a good result, following recent strong gains; volumes rose by 1.7% on a three-month-on-three-month basis. Admittedly, warmer-than-usual weather - average temperatures were 1.1 degree Celsius above their 1970-to-2018 April average - probably temporarily stimulated clothing sales, which rose by 2.3% month-to-month and boosted the headline growth rate by 0.3pp. Nonetheless, the underlying trend should remain healthy.

“The job market is tight enough to sustain year-over-year growth in real wages at about 1% throughout the second half of this year. Households also have just benefited from the biggest increase in the income tax personal allowance since 2013, while mortgage refinancing still is freeing up funds for discretionary expenditure. The Brexit saga has only had a modest impact on households’ confidence in the outlook for their personal finances, which remains in line with its long-run average. Households, therefore, looks set to sustain GDP growth at a slightly above-trend rate this year, convincing the MPC to raise Bank Rate again towards the tail-end of this year.”