Economy
The latest news, updates and analysis on the economy and how it is affecting the UK retail industry. Sign up to the Daily Briefing and let Retail Sector’s business journalists keep you in the picture.
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Mar- 2024 -5 March
Deal activity in F&B recovered in 2023, Grant Thornton finds
Deal activity in the food and beverage sector rebounded last year compared with 2022, when dealmaking was put on pause due to the emerging cost of living crisis, according to new research from Grant Thornton. According to the firm’s research, there was an uptick in M&A activity across the sector…
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5 March
Retail sales underperform in February
UK total retail sales rose by 1.1% year-on-year during the four-week period ended 24 February, against a growth of 5.2% last year and below the three-month average growth of 1.4%, according to the BRC. The BRC has attributed the poor retail sales to February 2024 being “the wettest on record”. …
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Feb- 2024 -28 February
68% of SMEs feel more positive about business growth, survey finds
Some 68% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are feeling more positive about their business growth opportunities when compared to last year, according to Alibaba.com’s B2B Sentiment Survey. According to the survey, which had more than 500 SMEs participate across the country, found that of this 68%, 19% described their…
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23 February
Mother’s Day spend to hit £1.7bn despite shoppers trading down
UK shoppers are set to spend £1.7bn on Mother’s Day this year, a 1.1% increase on 2023, as over half of consumers intend to purchase an item to celebrate the occasion, though price remains a main concern, according to the UK Mother’s Day Intentions 2024 report from GlobalData. However, Global…
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23 February
Consumer confidence falls in February
UK consumer confidence dropped two points in February to -21, according to GfK’s long-running index. The survey revealed that four measures were down and one was unchanged in comparison to last month’s announcement. The index measuring changes in personal finances during the last year was down two points at -14.…
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16 February
Retail sales jump 3.4% giving optimism despite recession
Retail sales in the UK jumped 3.4% in January 2024 after falling 3.2% in December, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. This is the biggest rise in retail sales since April 2021 when the UK had just emerged from the third covid lockdown. The price of goods…
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15 February
UK enters technical recession as GDP contracts 0.3% in Q4
The UK fell into a technical recession after gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.3% in the final three months of 2023, according to the ONS latest report. The news marks the first time the UK has entered a recession since the first half of 2020, when the initial Covid-19…
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14 February
Inflation remains steady at 4%
Inflation remained unchanged at 4% in January, despite forecasters expecting a slight rise as falling food prices offset an increase in the energy cap, according to the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The news comes as the ONS revealed the annual inflation rate for housing, water,…
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8 February
Shoppers say brands should help in financial crisis, study finds
Seven out of 10 UK adults believe brands should play a role in helping them navigate the cost-of-living crisis, but some 57% also feel that brands could do more to help consumers, according to new research by Universal McCann. According to the firm, the study analysed 2,000 UK consumers to…
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6 February
Retail sales slow as high cost of living enters third year
UK total retail sales increased by 1.2% year on year for the four weeks ended 27 January 2023, compared with a growth of 4.2% in January 2023, according to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). This was above the three-month average growth of 1.9% and below the 12-month average…
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