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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Sep- 2021 -23 September
Card retail transactions up to 81%, survey finds
Debit and credit card retail transactions surpassed four in every five pounds spent in 2020 (81%, up from 78% in 2019), according to the latest annual payments survey published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Cash use now accounts for just 15% of total spending in retail (down from 20%…
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15 September
Inflation sees biggest jump on record in August
UK inflation saw its largest jump since records began in August, as the rate spiked to 3.2% in a 12 month period, up from 2% year-on-year in July. Despite the rate soaring past the Government’s 2% inflation target, the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) claimed that this “is likely to…
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8 September
UK shoppers buying internationally drops 14%
The proportion of UK shoppers buying internationally reportedly dropped 14% to just over one in 10 (31%) in 2021. According to research conducted by Sendcloud, a shipping platform for e-commerce businesses, 56% of EU consumers claimed to shop internationally, a fall of just 5% from 2020. The group’s annual e-commerce…
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Aug- 2021 -23 August
UK rejects industry demand for EU truck driver visa
The government has reportedly rejected calls to install temporary visas which would allow HGV drivers from the EU to help alleviate the current shortfall of drivers in the UK. According to the Financial Times, ministers rejected the idea put forward by two industry bodies but have backed calls to increase…
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18 August
Inflation slows to 2% in July
Inflation slowed to 2% in July down from 2.5% the previous month, according to the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). It found that clothing and footwear, and a variety of recreational goods and services made the largest downward contributions to the change, with inflation now hitting…
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17 August
Unemployment falls to 4.7% as job vacancies hit record high
UK unemployment fell to 4.7% for the quarter to 30 June 2021, a drop of 0.2% when compared to the previous three month period. According to the ONS, this was coupled by a 0.3% rise in the UK employment rate to 75.1% in the same period, closing the gap with…
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12 August
Retail best industry for UK start-ups, research finds
Retail has been named as the UK’s best industry for start-ups, according to new research from cloud accounting company Ember. It found that retail trade, with the exception of motor vehicles and motorcycles, ranked first after scoring highly in a number of key indicators for business success. The research used…
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12 August
UK economy surges 4.8% in June
The UK economy grew by 4.8% in June as Covid-19 restrictions surrounding retail and leisure were eased across the UK, according to figures published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have grown for a fifth consecutive month in June 2021, by 1.0%,…
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6 August
Scottish footfall remains subdued
Figures provided by the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Sensormatic IQ data. show footfall for retailers is down 27.1% in July on the same month in 2019. Scottish shopping centre footfall declined by 34.1% in July, while footfall in Glasgow was down 26.1% compared to the same month in 2019.…
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Jul- 2021 -13 July
UK retail sales jump 13.1% in June
Total retail sales in the UK increased by 13.1% in June, according to the latest BRC-KPMG retail sales monitor. On a like-for-like basis, the country’s retail sales rose by 17% from June 2019, with non-food reporting a like-for-like sales jump of 47%. In the nation’s high street stores, sales were…
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