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Economics

UK Retailer’s Worst Year Ever Caps Grim Outlook for Economy

  • Consumer confidence fell, and inflation is near 41-year high
  • Bank of England is set to deliver a 10th interest rate hike
UK retail sales fell 5.8% from a year ago.

UK retail sales fell 5.8% from a year ago.

Photographer: Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg
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UK retail sales fell unexpectedly last month, finishing the worst year on record as a brutal cost-of-living squeeze pointed toward more pain ahead for the economy.

A 6.1% drop in the volume of goods purchased in shops and online reported by the Office for National Statistics on Friday was the sharpest since records started in 1989. A separate report showed consumer confidence slid for the first time in four months.