UK retail sales plummet in December as Omicron sweeps nation

Six times greater than predicted

Elliot Gulliver-Needham
clock • 1 min read

UK retail sales plummeted in December, with the amount of goods sold in stores and online falling 3.7% from November, compared to a decrease of just 0.6% predicted by economists.

The Office for National Statistics said that the decrease was driven by a 7.1% drop in sales at non-food stores, while fuel sales fell 4.7% as working from home caused reduced travel. Food store sales fell by 1%, however despite their fall, they were still 2% above levels in February 2020. Customers also increasingly used the internet for purchases, with the proportion of retail sales online rising to 26.6% from 26.3% in November. The number stood at 19.7% before the pandemic. Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst for Hargreaves Lansdown, noted that "although the...

To continue reading this article...

Join Investment Week for free

  • Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
  • Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
  • Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
  • Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
  • Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes

Join now

 

Already an Investment Week
member?

Login

Trustpilot