UK data - BRC March retail like-for-like sales: +3.2% y/y (vs. expected 0.5%)

UK data

British Retail Consortium (BRC) March retail like-for-like sales: +3.2%

• vs. expected +0.5%, prior was +0.2%

Via Reuters:

• British retail spending rose at its fastest annual rate in almost a year last month
• BRC says it was boosted by Easter falling a month earlier than in 2014
• Total retail sales in March was 4.7% y/y ... biggest year-on-year rise since April 2014
• Retail spending in the first three months of 2015 was 2.8 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a 1.5 percent rise in the last three months of 2014
• On a so-called like-for-like basis -- a measure which strips out changes in floor space and is favoured by equity analysts -- retail spending was 3.2 percent up in March compared with a 0.2 percent annual rise in February