To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the 0.4 per cent fall in February in the volume of goods sold in UK shops.
Answered on
25 April 2016
Individual month on month changes can be volatile. Although the latest ONS Retail Sales Index reports a fall of 0.4 per cent in the volume of goods sold on a seasonally adjusted basis in February, it follows on from a strong monthly rise in January (2.3 per cent). It is also a 3.8 per cent increase on February of last year.
This monthly decline in sales volumes was seen across all the headline categories of retail (with the exception of household goods stores). However, for almost all categories the decline was substantially smaller than the growth seen in the previous month.
The latest Retail Sales Index publication and supplementary data is attached and can be found here:-
https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/february2016