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The Office for National Statistics has revealed that retail sales volumes rose by an estimated 0.5% in April, following a fall of 1.2% in March.
This comes as sales volumes rose by 0.8% in the three months to April when compared with the previous three months – the highest rate since August 2021 at 1.3%.
In April, non-food stores sales volumes rose by 1%, following a fall of 1.8% in March. This was attributed to poor weather conditions throughout most of March.
Food stores sales volumes also rose by 0.7% in April 2023, following a fall of 0.8% in March.
According to the ONS, sales volumes in April were still 2.7% below their pre-coronavirus February 2020 levels.
Meanwhile, online retailers’ sales volumes rose by 0.2% in April, following a fall of 1.4% in March.
Despite falling fuel prices, automotive fuel sales volumes fell by 2.2% in April after rising 0.1% in March.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “Despite households still feeling the squeeze from the high cost of living, sales growth improved in April. Nonetheless, consumers continued to adjust their spending patterns, looking for lower price alternatives on many key products, leading to falling sales volumes.
“Electrical goods performed particularly poorly, while books and stationery saw an uplift due to Spring promotions and consumers starting to purchase their summer reads. Sales should improve further as we enter the summer months, especially with inflation starting to ease and consumer confidence slowly stabilising.”
She added: “Government must ensure it does not sabotage this momentum by adding cost pressures onto retailers from new policies, as these will mainly serve to push prices back up for people up and down the country.”
