Retail sales increase for November

Date: 8th December 2009

Like-for-like sales in UK shops rose by 1.8 per cent between November 2008 and November 2009, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said.

New figures for last month also show that non-food non-store sales, including online shopping and mail-order catalogues, were up by16.9 per cent.

The improved retail figures provide further evidence for the view that the UK has emerged from recession, following six successive quarters of negative GDP growth.

BRC's data also suggests that trading could be strong during the Christmas period, traditionally the busiest time of the year for shops.

Stephen Robertson, the organisation's director general, expressed caution over the figures - pointing out that the increases had come from very weak trading during 2008.

"We would have expected much stronger growth because the comparison is with very poor results in 2008 when November was the second worst performing month of the year," he said.

"Retailers are hopeful of a better Christmas than last year's dire performance, but it's still all to play for."