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U.K. Retail Sales Plunge as Mild Weather Curbs Spending

  • Volume of sales including fuel drops most since September 2014
  • Prices - measured by annual deflator - fell 3.2% in December
Sales of clothing, shoes and textiles plunged 6.2 percent in December.

Sales of clothing, shoes and textiles plunged 6.2 percent in December.

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Updated on

U.K. retail sales plunged the most in more than a year in December as mild weather damped clothing demand and early discounting boosted spending the previous month.

The volume of sales including fuel fell 1 percent, the biggest drop since September 2014, the Office for National Statistics said in London on Friday. That follows a 1.3 percent jump in November, boosted by Black Friday promotions. Clothing, shoes and textiles plunged 6.2 percent in December and the decline in total sales was bigger than the 0.3 percent economists had forecast.