Economy
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Jul- 2024 -9 July
Cold weather chills consumer spending in June
UK Total retail sales decreased by 0.2% year on year in June, against an increase of 4.9% in June 2023, as cold weather negatively affected spending particularly on “weather sensitive categories”. The latest figures from BRC’s and KPMG’s retail sales monitor revealed that food sales increased 1.1% year-on-year over the…
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Jun- 2024 -20 June
BoE holds interest rates for 7th consecutive month
Interest rates have remained unchanged at 5.25% for the seventh consecutive month, the Bank of England has announced. The bank’s MPC voted by a majority of 7–2 to maintain the rate, despite inflation hitting its target and falling to 2% in May. UK inflation hit its target for the first time…
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Apr- 2024 -30 April
Shop Price annual inflation falls to 0.8% in April
Shop Price annual inflation eased to 0.8% in April, down from 1.3% in March, as it starts to show “signs of normalising”, according to the latest figures from the BRC-Nielsen Index. Non-Food entered deflation at -0.6% in April, down from 0.2% in the preceding month. This is below the three-month…
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Mar- 2024 -26 March
Bumper Easter week to boost footfall by +6.6%
Footfall is forecast to rise by +6.6% across all UK retail destinations over the week of Easter, according to MRI Software. MRI said it anticipates that shoppers will “flock” to retail parks this week to stock up on Easter essentials ahead of the weekend with the latter part of the…
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Feb- 2024 -7 February
Retail sales slow as high cost of living enters third year
UK total retail sales increased by 1.2% year on year for the four weeks ended 27 January 2023, compared with a growth of 4.2% in January 2023, according to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). This was above the three-month average growth of 1.9% and below the 12-month average…
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Dec- 2023 -18 December
Consumer confidence improves during December
Consumer confidence improved two points during December to -22 as sentiment improved ahead of Christmas. All five measures were up in comparison to last month’s announcement. The index measuring changes in personal finances during the last year is up two points at -14; this is 14 points better than December…
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Nov- 2023 -22 November
Chancellor cuts National Insurance to 10% alongside NLW rise
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced a series of measures to help boost the UK economy as part of his Autumn Budget including slashing National Insurance by 2% and freezing business rates for retail and hospitality. As part of the new measures, Hunt revealed that National Insurance will be cut from…
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15 November
Lower energy prices sees inflation drop to 4.6%
UK Inflation slowed sharply to 4.6% in October, beating economists expectations, thanks to a marked reduction in energy prices. According to the latest figures of the Office of National Statistics, housing and household services prices fell by 0.3% between September and October 2023, compared with a rise of 3.4% between…
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Aug- 2023 -8 August
Retail sales growth slows in July amid heavy rain
The UK’s total retail sales increased by 1.5% in the four weeks to 29 July, against the 2.3% growth experienced in the same month last year. This was below the three-month average growth of 3.5% and the 12-month average growth of 3.9%, according to BRC data. This lacklustre growth in…
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Apr- 2023 -18 April
Hallmarking drops 35.9% in March
The total number of items hallmarked by all four UK Assay Offices fell 35.9% in March 2023 compared with the same period in 2022, according to data from Birmingham Assay Office. The total number of items hallmarked in March was 591,874, around 320,000 less than the same month in 2022.…
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