The United Kingdom’s retail sales picked up surprisingly in May, following a bumper performance in April, owing to a surge in clothing sales from a month ago period. The Brexit camp seems to have little effect on the shoppers who were previously let down on household sentiments.
Retail sales volumes rose 6.0 percent in May, the biggest annual rise since September, data released by the Office for National Statistics showed. April's retail sales growth was revised up to 5.2 percent from 4.3 percent, which -- the ONS said -- reflected an unusually high amount of data received late from stores.
Compared with a month earlier, sales volumes were up 0.9 percent, much less of a slowdown than economists had expected after monthly growth of 1.9 percent in April, which also reflected an upward revision.
In May, clothing sales jumped by 4.3 percent on month, the biggest rise in over two years, supported by a better weather. Sales volumes in the three months to May were up 1.5 percent in the previous three months, the biggest rise since November 2015.
Consumer spending has remained a major indicator of Britain’s economic expansion over the past three years. However, household confidence has slipped to its weakest since late 2014 in the run-up to UK's referendum on European Union's membership.
British Finance Minister George Osborne said he would be forced to raise taxes and cut public spending if Britain voted to leave in order to plug a 30 billion pound hole in the public finances that a Brexit would open. This follows earlier warnings from him that the country risked tipping back into recession and the average household would be 4,300 pounds a year poorer by 2030 if the country left the EU, Reuters reported.
