BRC: UK retailers see the biggest fall in non-food spending since 2009

The latest data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents large chains, showed rising consumers prices lead the UK shoppers to cut back on almost everything other than food in the last three months of 2017, resulting in the biggest fall in non-grocery spending since 2009.

The BRC said overall spending in the last three months of 2017 rose by a sluggish 1.1 percent, compared with an average annual growth rate of 1.7 percent for 2017 as a whole, as cited by Reuters.  

Non-food sales fell by 1.4 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter, the biggest drop since March 2009, while food sales grew by 4.2 percent, the biggest jump since June.

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson noted: “Growth in spending was in line with the average for the year. However, the divergence between growth in sales of food and non-food has never been so stark.”