Deloitte comments on this morning's ONS Retail Statistics

Commenting on today’s ONS retail sales figures, Ben Perkins, head of consumer research at Deloitte, said:

“The retail market has enjoyed its strongest quarter since late 2014, with an impressive 3.7% growth in the amount spent over the past three months, compared to a year earlier. Our own data confirms consumers had shrugged off Brexit, with confidence at a five-year high. Going into the all-important golden quarter, the market remains strong, although rises in inflation might well prompt new concerns in 2017.

“Digging deeper, the clothing market struggled once again, as unseasonably warm weather made it harder to shift autumn lines. In the food sector, value growth was driven by the food specialists, while sales through large grocers saw a marginal decline of 0.1%.

“September was a very strong month for online sales rising 22 percentage points year on year to account for 15% of all retail sales. A year ago this figure stood at 12.6%, pointing to a significant step-change. This sets the scene for what could be another very strong Black Friday sales period and more growth in the short term.”

End

Notes to editors

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