By
Reuters
Published
Apr 27, 2016
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UK retail sales suffer biggest fall in over four years

By
Reuters
Published
Apr 27, 2016

British retail sales fell at the sharpest rate in more than four years this month, after cold weather turned shoppers away from new spring and summer clothes, the Confederation of British Industry said on Wednesday.



The CBI distributive trades survey's sales balance dropped to -13 in April from +7 in March, its lowest since January 2012 and far below all the forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists.

Department stores and clothes retailers reported the biggest fall in sales.

"Cold weather put a chill in sales of spring and summer ranges with a reported dip in retail sales in the year to April, but with the near-term outlook for household spending holding up the sector expects a modest rise in sales next month," the CBI's director of economics, Rain Newton-Smith, said.

The expected sales balance for May stood at +9, compared with the +17 retailers had expected for April, the CBI said.



 

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