Fashion sector drags down official UK retail figures for September

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 20, 2016

The UK retail sector did reasonably well in September with sales values and volumes both rising, official government figures showed today. But while the sector as a whole did better than some had expected in a post-Brexit vote environment, clothing and footwear under-performed and dragged the whole index down.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said total retail sales were up by 4.1% year-on-year on a volume basis, lagging the upwardly revised 6.6% increase in August.

The September figure takes the third quarter’s retail sales rise to 5.4% year-on-year, which is the biggest jump since August 2014.

By volume compared to the previous month, sales were flat despite the ONS’s statisticians saying there is as yet no sign that shopper sentiment is waning following the vote to leave the EU in June. The flat volume growth matched August’s figure.

By value, total September retail sales rose by 2.9% to £36bn compared with September 2015 and increased by 0.1% compared with the previous month.

Sales grew in all sectors last month except textiles, clothing and footwear with the biggest sales jump coming from the online channel. The amount spent online increased by 22% compared with September 2015 and by 2.8% compared with August 2016.

By volume, textile, clothing and footwear sales fell 5.4% and by value they dropped a slightly smaller 5%, suggesting prices edged up in the sector.

In fact the ONS said that average store prices including fuel fell 1.1% year-on-year as almost all store types saw lower prices except for textile, clothing and footwear stores.

The ONS suggested that it was these price rises along with the unseasonably warm weather that dented shopper interest in fashion product. Earlier this week it had announced that inflation rose to 1% last month, partly driven by higher fashion sector prices.

"The underlying trend is one of strength, suggesting consumer confidence has remained steady since June's referendum," Kate Davies from the ONS said.