Now the official statistics are out, and it’s bad news for the High Street. The volume of retail sales in January fell by 1.3%, the first month on month fall since July. According to the Guardian, High Street revenue was flat compared with the same month last year, the worst performance since World War II.
Look beyond the headlines and it’s not quite so bad. The Office of National Statistics likes us to look at the three monthly trend and says that over the period retail sales volume was up 1.3% on the previous three months.
But then again, that’s not surprising. Before Christmas, it was widely agreed the High Street was enjoying a recovery, so you would expect data that includes November and December to be reasonably positive. The question is this: is February seeing an improvement? It’s too early to tell, so now eyes avert to the CBI and BRC whose reports on February should be coming soon.
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