- No growth in retail sales in March but February revised up slightly to 0.1%
- Rising fuel, furniture and clothing sales helped offset fall in food sales
- Volumes up 1.9% over the quarter, bouncing back from poor Christmas period
Danni Hewson, AJ Bell head of financial analysis, comments on the latest retail sales figures:
“Households have become more switched on to their personal finances over the past couple of years as the cost-of-living crisis stretched budgets to the limit. Inflation may have cooled significantly and the first of those National Insurance cuts has made it into workers’ pay packets, but people are still feeling the pinch.
“The big push to get more people back in offices coupled with train strikes and lengthening days has pushed people back into their cars and more frequently to the forecourt. With more people on the roads, footfall in towns and cities has been boosted but the end of post-Christmas sales has meant less of those shoppers ended up in department stores.
“It’s no surprise that furniture sales were up in March when you consider the flurry of for sale signs that went up outside homes just before the Easter break. And hope that the rain will finally stop soaking us all has tempted some shoppers to refresh their wardrobes with a spot of spring colour.
“But this is a sector stuck in the doldrums and these figures suggest that rather than surging out of recession the economy is once again flatlining. Brands that were already struggling to stay relevant are finding the current climate inhospitable and more holes have opened up on our high streets.
“The myriad of changes that came in at the start of April will have households doing their sums, working out whether they’re any better off thanks to wage increases and tax cuts or whether increases elsewhere have kept them in their financial rut.”
