ONS: Retail sales values rose last month

Thursday, March 25th 2010

Britons may be heading back to the shops and spending more, according to the latest retail sales figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The figures revealed a 4.9 per cent rise in the seasonally adjusted value of retail sales last month, compared with February 2009.

And since February last year, there has been a 3.5 per cent rise in the seasonally adjusted volume of retail sales, it was noted.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) confirmed this and said its own figures showed a rise in sales values lastmonth.

Director general of the BRC Stephen Robertson said: "These figures may not be all they seem. The growth is compared with very weak figures a year ago when February saw the worst of last winter's weather."

This could mean that shoppers headed to the January sales one month later than normal, he cautioned.

Mr Robertson added that consumers are now more positive than they were last year, but there is still caution caused by issues such as the General Election.