U.K. Retail Sales Fall Faster Than Expected in June
U.K. retail sales fell faster than expected in June. Bad weather throughout the month was blamed for the fall in clothing and footwear sales.
Retail sales, excluding petrol, fell 0.9% compared to May when they rose by 0.9%, figures from the Office for National Statistics show. Economists expected a 0.6% drop in June.
Sales were up 3.9% in June from a year earlier. This was a decrease in growth compared with May, when sales rose 5.2% year-on-year. Economist had expected a 4.8% rise for the year-on-year sales.
Clothing and footwear has been particularly hard hit, with sales down 6.1% over the past 12 months.
The ONS said, "All types of stores showed growth in June with the exception of clothing and footwear which struggled again due to the changeable weather. But department stores continued to see strong sales compared with last June - boosted by events such as Father's Day, the Euro 2016 football and the Queen's official birthday."
Food store sales were up 3.1% and non-store retailing increased 12.1% over the year.
Most of the data was captured before the June 23 Brexit referendum, so the full impact of the vote to leave the European Union will not be known until July figures are released on Aug. 18.
Fashion retailers Next and Marks & Spencer (MAKSY) fell 2.1% and 1.5%, respectively, in morning trading in London. Food retailers were also down, with supermarket chain Tesco (TSCDY) losing 2.1% and Morrison down 1.7%.