UK retail sales rebound 1.4% m/m in November, a big beat

The UK retail sales rebounded 1.4% over the month in November, beating market expectations by a big margin while core retail sales stripping the auto motor fuel sales also jumped 1.2% m/m.

On an annualized basis, the UK retail sales rose 3.6% in November versus 1.9% expected while the core retail sales also ticked 3.8% higher in the reported month versus 2.8% previous and 2.3% expectations.

Main Points (via ONS):

“Strong growth of 5.3% in household goods stores provided the largest contribution to overall growth within non-food stores.

Retailers reported strong growth on the month due to Black Friday promotions in November, which continues the shifting pattern in consumer spending to sales occurring earlier in the year; the non-seasonally adjusted growth rate in November 2018 was 13.2% in comparison with 8.7% in November 2013.

In November 2018, online sales as a proportion of all retailing exceeded 20% for the first time, with all online retailing accounting for 21.5% of total retailing on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.”