UK’s retail sales data was published today, showing that sales volume fell last month by 1.3% month-on-month, as compared with consensus forecast of a fall of 0.1%. Retail sales had declined 0.5% in February. In the first quarter of 2016, UK’s retail sales grew 0.8%, slowed down from Q4 2015’s 1%. The headline figure continues to be moderately assuring in spite of the soft data, noted Lloyds Bank.
Given the stronger sales figure in the first quarter as whole, consumers are expected to be the primary growth driver of the UK economy this year, according to Lloyds Bank. Consumer momentum continues to resist the heightened uncertainty in the domestic economy, supported by still-brisk pace of high street discounting, with the retail deflator that remained unchanged at -2.1% y/y.
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