09/12/2008 - Sales drop bodes ill for retailers
It could be an unforgiving Christmas for beleaguered retailers hoping for a seasonal boost after figures showed the first successive monthly fall in overall sales for nearly 14 years.
The latest British Retail Consortium-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor showed that total sales in November dropped 0.4% year-on-year following a 0.1% decline in October - a first for the survey since its launch in January 1995.
The BRC said that retail woes in November were compounded by shoppers holding out for the launch of the VAT cut this month. The data also confirmed a further fall in like-for-like sales, which strips out the impact of new stores and is the measure most widely used in the industry.
Sales fell 2.6% on a like-for-like basis in November in the sixth consecutive month of decline as the high street gloom deepens. Food and drink was the only sector to see sales rise last month compared with a year ago, helped along by a supermarket price war, the BRC said.
It is hoped that last week's 1% interest rate cut from the Bank of England and the Chancellor's VAT reduction from 17.5% to 15% will spur consumers on to spend. But the November figures showed the tough conditions faced on Britain's hard-pressed high street.
Copyright © Press Association 2008
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