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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Apr- 2019 -29 April
Retail rents fall as pressure on sector continues
High street shop prime rents fell by 1% in the first quarter of the year, according to real estate company CBRE’s latest Prime Rent and Yield Monitor. This indicated an acceleration of the falls reported in Q3 (0.4%) and Q4 (0.4%) of 2018. Shopping centre prime rents fell 1.3% over…
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26 April
Retail sales growth picks up for first time in five months
Retail sales grew for the first time since November 2018 in the year to April, according to the latest monthly Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Distributive Trades Survey. The survey of 110 firms, of which 55 were retailers, showed that sales volumes rose for the first time in five months,…
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25 April
74,400 retail jobs lost in first three months of 2019
The retail sector saw a 2.4% year-on-year drop in the number of employees in the first quarter of this year, equating to a loss of 74,400 jobs. According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), this is a higher reduction than the 2.2% drop seen in 2018. The trade organisation said…
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18 April
UK retail sector bounces back in March
In the three months to March 2019, the quantity bought in retail sales increased by 1.6% compared with the previous quarter in 2018, according to new figures from the ONS. The sales increase has been attributed to “sustained growth” throughout the first three months of the year, and all store…
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17 April
Shopping centre landlords offer free space to retailers
Revo, the organisation that represents the retail community, has launched a new competition to give budding retail entrepreneurs free space in shopping centres and help with marketing. The organisation driving retail placemaking across Britain and Ireland has launched a major new campaign to find the next generation of retail talent…
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15 April
Springboard predicts Easter weekend footfall to ‘bounce back’
According to retail experts Springboard, Easter weekend UK footfall is forecast to rise by +2.1%, bringing a “sigh of relief” to high streets and retail parks in what has been a challenging year. The forecast expects a “bounce back” over the key trading period from what was a poor Easter…
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10 April
Business confidence ‘crashes’ to lowest point since 2012
Business optimism has “crashed” to its lowest level since September 2012, according to a new report from accountants and business advisors BDO. BDO’s Optimism Index, which shows how businesses expect output to develop in the next three to six months, plummeted to 96.10 in March from 99.79 in February. According…
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9 April
Brexit uncertainty slows retail sales in March
UK retail sales decreased by 1.1% in March, compared with the increase of 1.4% in 2018, according to the latest BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor. Over the three months to March, in-store sales of non-food items declined 1.5% on a total basis and 1.7% on a like-for-like basis. This is above…
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3 April
Shop price inflation hits highest level in six years
Shop price inflation accelerated in March to 0.9%, up from 0.7% in February, the highest inflation rate since March 2013. The figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Nielsen’s Shop Price Index also revealed that food inflation had increased by 2.5% in March, up from 1.6% in February. This…
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1 April
Shops, pubs and restaurants to get £500m tax reprieve
Small firms on England’s embattled high streets are set to share in half a billion pounds worth of tax cuts as business rates bills are slashed, real estate adviser Altus Group has said. The government announced a business rates discount scheme for small sized high street properties in England which…
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