U.K. Retail Sales Climbed in August on School Clothing, Footwear Purchases
Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Paul Venables, chief financial officer of Hays Plc, talks about full-year earnings at the U.K.'s biggest recruitment firm and the outlook for employment in the countries in which it operates. Hays said full-year profit dropped 91 percent as permanent hiring slumped and the company took one-time charges, including a reserve to cover a U.K. Office of Fair Trading fine. Venables speaks with Mark Barton on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown."(Source: Bloomberg)
U.K. retail sales increased in August as shoppers bought school clothing for the new academic year and footwear, the British Retail Consortium said.
Sales at stores open at least 12 months rose 1 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 0.5 percent gain in July, the London-based BRC said in an e-mailed statement today. Sales of non-food items via the Internet, mail-order and phone companies climbed 18 percent.
Consumer confidence improved for the first time in six months in August after the economy expanded in the second quarter by the most in nine years, a report showed last week. That recovery is threatened by the budget squeeze looming as Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne cuts spending by the most since World War II to tackle the record deficit.
“The good news is sales are still growing,” Stephen Robertson, director general of the BRC, said in the statement. “Anxiety about job cuts and tax rises is putting people off making major spending commitments.”
GfK NOP Ltd.’s index of consumer sentiment rose 4 points to minus 18 in August, though its gauge measuring the climate for major purchases dropped 4 points to minus 20.
The BRC report, which is compiled in conjunction with accountancy firm KPMG LLP, measures changes in the actual value of retail sales and doesn’t adjust for price changes.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Ryan in London at jryan13@bloomberg.net
Rate These Stories
Rate this Page