Economy
Economy explores the wider economic forces influencing the UK retail industry. This section covers inflation, consumer spending, interest rates, labour market conditions, and policy developments affecting retail performance and profitability. Retail Sectorโs Economy coverage provides expert analysis, data-driven insight, and commentary to help retail leaders, financial planners, and operational managers understand how macroeconomic trends are shaping demand, costs, and investment decisions across the sector.
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Sep- 2020 -10 September
Government launches new โbounce backโ plan for retailers
A new series of measures has been announced by the UK Government to support businesses in the consumer and retail industries during the Covid-19 pandemic.ย The plans, announced by Minister for exports Graham Stuart, will offer immediate support to businesses by ensuring specialists provide advice on online retail and international…
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9 September
Pizza Hut to close 29 sites, 450 jobs cut
Pizza Hut has confirmed it is to close 29 sites as part of a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) that will see around 450 jobs lost.ย Pizza Hut Restaurants revealed it is currently negotiating a CVA in order to โmitigate the financial impact of Covid-19โ.ย It said PHR is โone of…
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8 September
UK retail sales increase by 4.7% in August
UK retail sales in August have increased by 4.7% on a like-for-like basis from August 2019, according to figures released in BRC-KPMGโs Retail Sales Monitor report for the month. Overall sales increased by 3.9% in the period, in comparison to a decline of 0.4% in August 2019. This is above…
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7 September
GDP to contract ยฃ15.3bn each year if home working persists
Lower consumer spending and a decrease in economic clustering if pandemic levels of home working persist would reduce UK GDP by ยฃ15.3bn every year, according to new research published by PwC. The โBig Fourโ accountancy firm said the hit to consumption is a result of office workers spending fewer days…
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3 September
UK small business sector โplaguedโ by late payment issues
UK freelancers and small business owners continue to be plagued by the problem of late payment, according to new research by cloud accounting software company Freeagent. Analysis of over two million invoices sent by FreeAgent customers between January 2019 and June 2020 has revealed the โstartling impactโ of late payment…
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Aug- 2020 -27 August
Younger Brits drive corner shop lockdown revival
Younger UK consumers have been the โdriving forceโ behind the revival of the corner shop, according to research carried out by Paypoint. In the survey of 2,000 UK adults, just over half said they visited their local corner shop for the first time ever during lockdown, with this number rising…
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24 August
Record economic growth anticipated for Q3
The UK is reportedly on track for a record economic resurgence during the third quarter of the year, following sharp declines in GDP at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Q2. According to the Financial Times (FT), City of London economists have predicted a 14.3% rise in GDP for…
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12 August
UK in recession following 20% GDP slump
The UK economy has entered into a technical recession following a โrecordโ fall in gross domestic product (GDP) during the second quarter of the year. According to the Office for National Statistics, GDP slumped by 20.4% between April and June 2020, compared with the 2.2% drop seen during Q1 2020…
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Jul- 2020 -16 July
UK payroll numbers plummet by 650,000
The number of people on UK company payrolls fell by 649,000 between March and June 2020, new research from the ONS has revealed. When compared with May, there were 74,000 fewer people in paid employment. Early estimates for June 2020 also indicate that the number of paid employees is expected…
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14 July
June retail sales show signs of recovery
Retail sales increased by 3.4% in June, against a decrease of 1.6% in June 2019, marking the first signs of growth registered since the UK lockdown began. This is according to the latest BRCโKPMG retail sales monitor, which found that the increase in retail sales to be above the…
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