High Street Sales Up On Last December

Sales volume increased by 5.3% in December 2012 compared with December 2013. Sales value increased by 6.1%. Prices in the retail sector increased by 0.5% according to the implied price deflator.

The various contributions of the four main sectors of the retail industry were, for every pound spent in retail, 42p was spent in food shops, 41p in non-food shops, 6p in non-store retailing and 11p in stores selling automotive fuel.

The amount spent in December 2013's five week shopping period was £44.1bn compared with £30.1bn in November's four weeks and £42.6bn in the five weeks of December 2012. The average weekly spend in December 2013 was £8.8bn, £7.5bn in November and £8.5bn in December 2012.

Average weekly online spend in December 2013 was £675.4m an increase of 11.8% on December 2012. It accounted for 11.8% of all retail spending (excl. automotive fuel). Department stores reported that investment in their websites had increased online sales but detracted from store-based sales.

Services Index Up 2%

The index of services from the ONS for April 2012 was up 2% on April last year. Between March and April 2012 there was no change in the index.

All four components grew in April on the month on a year earlier comparison. Business services and finance rose by 2.1%, transport, storage and communication rose by 4.8%, government and other services grew by 1.3% and distribution, hotels and restaurants grew by 0.9%.

The main upward contributions in the transport, storage and communication sector came from computer programming, consultancy and related activities (8.1%) and telecommunications (9.9%). In business services and finance the main upward contributions came from administrative and support services (6.7%) and other professional services (6.2%).