High Street Hopes For World Cup Recovery

Retail sales again fell slowly in June according to the Distributive Trades Survey for June from the CBI. The results are still better than expected and an improvement on May. The decline was led by a sharp fall in footwear and then leather and hardware, china and DIY. It is hoped that the World Cup will have a beneficial effect in the July survey.

Services Investing More In Computers

The provisional estimates for total business investment for the second quarter of 2009 were released by the ONS recently. The estimate was £29,894m, down £3,483m or 10.4%, on the previous quarter. Manufacturing accounted for £2,886m and non-manufacturing £27,028m. Compared with Q2 2008 it is down 18.4%. The estimates for investment in computer hardware and software say that about 8% of private sector business investment was on computer hardware and software (3.75% to 4.25%). It was about 7% of manufacturing investment and 9.5% in the service sector.

Not Much Change In Retail Trades

Retailers reported yet another fall in retail sales volumes for the first two weeks of June compared with last year in the latest CBI Distributive Trades Survey results. The decline was more or less what was expected, more than last month but not as much as the previous month and nothing like the falls that have been witnessed during the last year. Retailers also reported that they expect sales to fall for another month in July. Stocks are more than adequate to meet demand so retailers have been slowly cutting back on orders with their suppliers. Sectors to see some growth include grocers and furniture and carpets. Durables, hardware, china, DIY and clothing showed sharp declines. The fall in the wholesale sector was sharper than the previous two months. If the fall extends into July it will be the thirteenth month in a row of falling sales. The hardest hit were the industrial and builders merchants wholesalers. Agricultural machinery and food and drink wholesalers saw no change on the year. The scrappage scheme may have had something to do with the motor sectors best sales figures for over a year.