UK retail sales fall in December

Wednesday 22nd May

Posted at 8:44AM Saturday 19 Jan 2013

UK retail sales fell at a seasonally-adjusted 0.1% in December from the month before, official figures suggest.

Compared with a year earlier, the quantity of goods sold rose a worse-than-expected 0.3%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This was the slowest annual growth rate for a December since 1998 - except for December 2010, when sales were hit by heavy snow, the ONS said.

Clothing and food sales did notably badly, but online retailers did well.

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