The
Confederation of British Industry (CBI) reported on Tuesday its latest survey
of retailers found that the retail sales volume balance decreased to -18 in the year to November from -6 in October,
pointing to a moderate decline in the sales volumes of the UK’s retailers after
a modest drop in the previous month.
Economists
had expected the reading to fall to -14 in November.
The report also
revealed that sales volumes were seen to decline at a faster pace next month
(-29).
In other survey
results, sales volumes for the time of year were judged to be “poor”, to a
broadly similar extent as in October (-22 compared to -25 in October), and are seen
to remain below seasonal norms in December (-15), albeit to a lesser extent. Selling
price inflation eased in the year to November compared to the previous quarter (+24,
compared to +30 in the three months to August), remaining below the long-run
average for the third consecutive quarterly survey (+41) but is expected to
accelerate next month (+33). Meanwhile, retail employment declined in the year
to November at the slowest rate since November 2023 (-18 from -25 in August) and
is predicted to be broadly unchanged in December (-2).
Elsewhere,
retailers indicated an intention to lower investment in the next 12 months
(compared to the past 12), though to a lesser extent than in August (-27 compared
to -35 in August).
Commenting on
the latest survey, Ben Jones, Lead Economist at the CBI, noted that retailers
continued to report disappointing sales, though trading conditions had shown
some improvement since the middle of the year. “Yet the last time retailers
felt this gloomy was back in November 2022, at the peak of the inflation shock,”
he added. “This makes the sharp decline in sentiment this month all the more
telling.”