British retail sales stumbled by 2.7 percent in May

Digest opened free editor

Rola Khaleda, FT editor, chooses her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

British retail sales decreased by 2.7 percent in May, a more declining decrease than expected and the first this year, as consumers have reduced the purchase of food and home commodities.

On Friday, the National Statistical Office was less than a 0.5 percent decrease by the economists of Reuters.

Follow the decline, the largest of any month since December 2023, bounced in April, which retailers said was unusually sunny.

The volume of sales of the food store fell in May, reflecting the apostasy in April. Total retail sales sizes fell 1.3 percent in May compared to the same month last year.

“The fall was consistent in all sectors with clothing and home commodity stores that reported slow trading due to low foot,” said Hana Venlbach, Senior Statistics at On S.

Retail sales numbers are the first official economic data for the month of May, which provides a signal to the consumer’s request.