–BRC: UK Sep Like-for-Like Sales 0.5% y/y; Total 2.2% y/y
–BRC UK July-September Like-for-Like Sales Up 0.6% y/y; Total +2.5% y/y

LONDON, (MNI) – UK retail sales values rose just 0.5% on a
like-for-like basis in September, down from August’s growth rate of
1.0%, with weak consumer confidence leading to the “sixth month of poor
sales growth”, according to the monthly retail sales monitor from the
British Retail Consortium-KPMG.

The BRC survey found total retail sales rose 2.2% on the year, down
from a 2.8% rise in August and a 4.9% increase in September 2009. The
BRC’s findings are hard to square with the CBI’s September survey, which
found the balance of retailers reporting sales up on the year rose to
its highest level for more than six years.

In the July through September period like-for-like sales rose 0.6%
on the year versus a 0.9% reading on the same basis in the prior month.
Total sales rose 2.5% in the three months through September, down from a
3.0% gain in June through August.

The driver behind sales growth has been food rather than non-food.

Food retail sales rose 2.1% on a like-for-like 3-month-weighted
average year-on-year basis from July to September, up from the 1.8%
increase seen in June to August. On the same basis, non-food sales fell
0.4% in September having risen just 0.3% in the three months through
August.

With the BRC data based on sales values, the rise in food sales
could well simply reflect rising food price inflation.

“The value of food sales crept up slightly as the impact of
inflationary pressures continued to filter through. Non-food sales as a
whole remained sluggish overall with like-for-like sales dipping into
negative territory in September,” Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail at
KPMG, said.

The BRC’s September survey outturns are in sharp contrast to the
CBI’s data.

The reported sales volume balance in the CBI survey in September –
which hit 49% – was the highest balance seen since May 2004 and the
expected sales volume balance of 47% for October was the highest since
October 2001.

The BRC survey covered the five weeks from Aug 29 through to Oct 2.
The CBI survey covered only the first part of this survey period,
running from Aug 26 through to Sep 15.

–London newsroom: 4420 7862 7492; email: ukeditorial@marketnews.com

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