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Business Support Group Attacks Pessimistic Report
Listed under: News
Published: Monday, January 25, 2010
One of the UK's leading retail specialists has criticised the results of the latest retail survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), dubbing the findings too 'pessimistic.'
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has cast doubt over the results of the figures released by the ONS – which reveal that sales in the retail sector during December were up 2.6% on 2008, – claiming they are at odds with their own data showing a six percent growth in the same period.
The association has also revealed that the findings do not match the feedback they have received from other retailers, many of whom reported strong sales during the Christmas period.
Commenting on the findings, BRC economist, Richard Lim, says, “The figures are right to show that December sales values were up on a year ago. Customers clearly felt more confident about spending than they have for some time and trading growth was also helped by the VAT cut dropping out of the 12-month comparison, with December being the first and only month where the 15 percent rate remained the same as a year earlier.
“But these ONS sales figures paint a more pessimistic picture than we would have expected,” he continues. “Its figure of 2.6% for annual growth in sales values is less than half the six percent result in our own Retail Sales Monitor. It's also at odds with a spate of company trading results since Christmas that show December sales were well up on the previous year – with some retailers even recording double digit growth.”
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The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has cast doubt over the results of the figures released by the ONS – which reveal that sales in the retail sector during December were up 2.6% on 2008, – claiming they are at odds with their own data showing a six percent growth in the same period.
The association has also revealed that the findings do not match the feedback they have received from other retailers, many of whom reported strong sales during the Christmas period.
Commenting on the findings, BRC economist, Richard Lim, says, “The figures are right to show that December sales values were up on a year ago. Customers clearly felt more confident about spending than they have for some time and trading growth was also helped by the VAT cut dropping out of the 12-month comparison, with December being the first and only month where the 15 percent rate remained the same as a year earlier.
“But these ONS sales figures paint a more pessimistic picture than we would have expected,” he continues. “Its figure of 2.6% for annual growth in sales values is less than half the six percent result in our own Retail Sales Monitor. It's also at odds with a spate of company trading results since Christmas that show December sales were well up on the previous year – with some retailers even recording double digit growth.”
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