UK Retailers are having a moderately merry Christmas, but it looks equally unlikely to be a spectacular success – as befits a nation still struggling to escape recession and with nearly 2.5m unemployed.
But throughout the downturn, retail sales have bucked the trend in the economy. While output has sunk 6 per cent over the course of the recession, retail volumes have grown by 2 per cent. In the three months to November, seasonally adjusted retail sales volumes were growing at an annualised rate of 3.4 per cent, slightly above the historical average.
