Non-food retail sales continue to drag, shop price inflation eases - BRC
UK retail sales were a little stronger than expected February, but non-food sales remain depressed.
Like-for-like retail sales in February increased 0.6% compared to the same month a year ago, according to the British Retail Consortium, which was better than the 0.4% consensus forecast and followed a 0.6% rise in January.
On a total basis, sales rose 1.6%, just ahead of the the-month average of 1.5% but just behind the 12-month mean of 1.7%.
Over the three months to February, non-food retail sales decreased 1.1% on a LFL basis and declined 2.4% in-store, while food sales increased 2.8% on a LFL basis.
The BRC’s measure of shop price inflation eased to -0.8% in January, from -0.5% in January.
The BRC’s survey covered the four weeks between 28 January and 24 February, before the heavy snow last week which is likely to have depressed retail sales at the very end of February and start of March.