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GBP: British retail sales fall for first time in five months

By Ricky Bean March 29th, 2018

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Distributive Trades Survey is an accurate measure of the UK’s retail sector and yesterday, the survey’s retail sales balance came in way below expectations. From +8 in February, it sank to -8 in March and, when you consider that a median forecast of +15 had been put forward by a Reuters poll of economists, the figure is especially disappointing.

Ultimately, it means that British retail sales fell for the first time in five months in March. It is felt that the effects of the cost-of-living on UK households bled through to the retail sales sector, but the heavy snowfall certainly didn’t help matters. When the choice is staying inside and keeping warm, or taking to the high street to indulge in a spot of shopping the decision makes itself.

Today we have the final reading of the UK GDP growth rate for the fourth quarter of 2017. It will be interesting to see whether the figure can exceed expectations like the US’s did yesterday. We will have the Nationwide housing prices for March and mortgage approvals for February. A pretty busy end to this shortened week, then.

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