Advertisement
Advertisement
Economy

Retail sales bounce back in February

Retail sales have bounced back slightly February 2019, as the quantity bought increased by 0.4% during the month.

In the three months to February 2019, the quantity bought increased by 0.7% when compared with the previous three months, with strong growth in non-store retailing and fuel.

Related Articles

Year-on-year growth in the quantity bought in February 2019 increased by 4%, with growth in all main sectors, while the only sub-sector to show a decline within non-food stores was household goods stores at negative 1.3%.

Advertisement

However, the monthly fall in food stores was the strongest decline since December 2016 at negative 1.5%, reversing the increase of 0.9% in January 2019, with food retailers suggesting that “getting back to normal” following the January sales had contributed to this fall.

Online sales as a proportion of all retailing also fell to 17.6% in February 2019 from the 18.8% reported in January 2019; this was a year-on-year increase of 9.4% when compared with February 2018.

Rhian Murphy, head of retail sales at the ONS, said: “Retail sales continued to bounce back in the three months to February with strong increases in fuel sales and online shopping. Food growth slowed, however, due to a significant fall for supermarkets, specialist food and alcohol stores in February after the sales and promotions seen in January came to an end.”

Check out our free weekly podcast

Back to top button