Retail sales tumbled in September, official data showed on Friday, weighed down by soaring prices, the cost-of-living crisis and the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
According to the Office for National Statistics, retail sales volumes fell 1.4% in September, making them 1.3% below February 2020, pre-Covid. Analysts had been expecting a decline of around 0.5%.
The ONS said retailers blamed rising prices and the cost-of-living squeeze for the fall in sales, with the data further affected by the bank holiday for the late queen’s funeral, when many shops were closed.
In the three months to September, sales volumes were down by 2.0% when compared to the previous three month-period, extending a downward trend that started in summer 2021.
Year-on-year, sales volumes fell 5.4% over the same period, while sales values spiked 5.5%.
The ONS also revised August’s fall in sales volumes, to 1.7% from 1.6%.
Alongside the retail sales data, the ONS also published figures showing a steep increase in government borrowing in September. Public sector net borrowing excluding public sector banks (PSNB ex) was £20bn last month, £2.2bn up on the same month a year previously and the second-highest September since records began in 1993.
In the financial year to September 2022, PSNB ex was £72.5bn, £24.9bn less than in the same period last year but £35.6bn more than in the financial year to September 2019, pre-Covid.
Public sector net debt excluding public sector banks stood at £2.45trn as at the end of September, around 98% of GDP. That was an increase of £213bn, or 2.5 percentage points of GDP, compared to September 2021.
