British retail sales fell for the first time in three-and-a-half years last month as consumers tightened their belts in a sagging economy, while the number of house sales in England and Wales dropped to a record low, surveys found yesterday.
Both were tokens of Britain’s slide into what forecasters say will be a recession.
In its monthly survey, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said total retail sales fell 0.1 percent last month from a year earlier, the first such fall since April 2005, when comparisons were distorted by the timing of Easter.
In September, total sales were up an annual 1 percent.
The BRC said like-for-like sales, which strip out new stores and space, fell by 2.2 percent in the year to last month, the seventh fall in the last eight months and the worst performance since May 2005.
“These are seriously poor numbers, especially in the run-up to Christmas,” BRC director-general Stephen Robertson said.
A more detailed look at the BRC survey, which was conducted in the four weeks to Nov. 1 and covers 60 percent of British retailing, shows that food and drink was the only sector to report sales significantly up on a year ago.
Clothing and footwear sales were particularly bad and heavily discounted despite colder and much wetter weather in Britain than the previous year.
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