UK Retail Sales Decline In October Sparked Fears Of A Slowdown

According to the financial times, the UK retail sales unexpectedly fell in October, raising concerns about whether consumer spending will continue to support Britain's weak economy.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (ONS), sales in October fell by 0.1% compared with the previous month, and Reuters expects the index to rise by 0.2%. The decline slowed the average growth to 0.2% in the three months ended October, down from 0.6% in the third quarter, the slowest growth since April 2018. More and more data show that the so-called Black Friday has an impact on the year-end shopping patterns of consumers, and the big discount at the end of November seems to have inhibited consumer spending in October and December.

Thomas Pugh, a British economist at Capital Economics, a consultancy, said consumers may postpone purchases before the black Friday discount at the end of November. Last year, retail sales fell by 0.1% in October, and then increased sharply by 1.3% in November, mainly due to the monthly growth of 36% in online sales. But in October this year, the data still caused public concern. Howard Archer, the chief consultant of EY Item Club, the economic forecasting agency, said that the recent weak economic data showed that consumers were concerned about Britain's off Europe issues, domestic political and economic problems, and the worsening global economic problems.

Most retail sales in October showed a downward trend, of which household products fell the largest, down 1.3% from last month. Sales of department stores and gas stations were on the rise, and sales of department stores increased by 2% over last month. The National Bureau of Statistics said that promotions and other discounts at the beginning of Christmas helped to improve performance in October, but in the long run the department store industry still has a downward trend.