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Friday August 22nd 2008

Official figures don't reflect retail reality says - BRC

Archived article dated Friday August 22nd 2008

The BRC says yesterdays official retail sales figures paint a more positive picture than most retailers would recognise.

The BRC disputes the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) finding that sales growth was higher in July than the previous month.

Stephen Robertson, Director General, British Retail Consortium, said: "Few retailers will recognise this positive picture. These ONS figures suggest July's total sales values were up 3.8 per cent on a year ago, well above the

"We respect the ONS's process but this report doesn't seem to reflect the current retail reality."Stephen Robertson DG BRC

miserly 1.7 per cent shown by the BRC's figures. ONS say year-on-year growth was higher in July than June. Our Retail Sales Monitor shows it fell. ONS don't measure like-for-like sales but our figures show July sales down on a year ago.

"There is no evidence that fundamental conditions are improving for customers or retail businesses. Consumer confidence remains low, unemployment is rising and the housing market weakening. It's hard to see what could produce the sales-growth boost ONS are reporting or their finding that smaller retailers are outperforming larger ones.

"We respect the ONS's process but this report doesn't seem to reflect the current retail reality."

Tagged as: brc | stephen robertson

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