UK: shopping doesn’t feel Brexit effects

The British return to shopping, driving out the concerns for Brexit. In July, retail sales in the UK in terms of volume, that is based on the amount of goods purchased, they showed a sharp rise of 1.4% on-month from -0.9% the previous month. The figure was better than expected by analysts who had expected a much more modest increase of 0.2%.

According to the Office for National Statistics, retail sales on year showed an increase of 5.9% compared to + 4.3% unrevised from the previous month. Also in this case the data is higher than the consensus of + 4.2%.

Core retail sales, excluding fuel, increased by 1.5% on the month, after -0.9% in the previous month and compared to + 0.4% consensus. Over-year core sales showed a + 5.4% versus + 3.9% expected and previous.

Instead, real estate data are on the opposite hand. Report from British Retail Consortium and Springboard underlines that the proportion of empty shops on Britain's high streets has reached its highest since April 2015, 10.1 per cent of shops lie vacant, caused by rising rental costs and consumers demanding online alternatives,
However, footfall across the country's high streets managed to rise by 0.3 per cent last month, after falling by 3.7 per cent in June.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: "The increase in the number of empty shops is an unwelcome reminder of the heavy burden of property costs. After a long run of shop vacancies being below 10 percent, seeing them rise over that threshold once again will be a bitter disappointment to many".