Caxton: retail figures are another knock

Date: 19th February 2010

The recently-published UK retail figures are "kicking the economy when it is down".

This is the view of foreign exchange expert Caxton FX, which said the UK was "already reeling" after the publication of public finance statistics before the most recent announcement.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) latest sales report have revealed that retail sales in January increased by just 3.2 per cent year-on-year.

However, on a month-on-month basis the figure showed a decline of 1.2 per cent.

Caxton highlighted the drop as the biggest monthly fall since March last year.

Duncan Higgins, senior analyst at Caxton FX, said: "Given the appeal of the post-Christmas sales, January is traditionally a positive month in terms of retail figures, which makes today's data all the more disappointing.

"In the wake of our surprising public deficit in January as well, fears will be mounting about the stability of the UK economic recovery."