UK April retail sales -2.3% vs -0.4% m/m expected

• Prior 0.0%; revised to -0.2%
• Retail sales -2.7% vs -0.2% y/y expected
• Prior +0.8%; revised to +0.4%
• Retail sales (ex autos, fuel) -2.0% vs -0.6% m/m expected
• Prior -0.3%; revised to -0.6%
• Retail sales (ex autos, fuel) -3.0% vs -1.1% y/y expected
• Prior +0.4%; revised to 0.0%

What an absolute stinker. Retail sales volumes fell by 2.3% on the month, after having been relatively flat in the two months before. ONS cites that poor weather last month led to reduced retail footfall. Looking at the breakdown:

Non-food stores sales volumes dropped by 4.1% as a whole in April, which marks the joint-largest drop (alongside December 2023) since January 2021.

This isn’t of much comfort to the BOE, after the hotter inflation numbers earlier this week. If anything, it shows that inflation pressures are continuing to bite at the average UK consumer.

On the political front, this isn’t good news for Rishi Sunak as well ahead of the polls in the second half of the year.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.