Retail Sales, April 2015

21 May 2015 02:39 PM

Main points

• Continuing a sustained period of year-on-year growth, retail sales in April 2015 are estimated to have increased by 4.7% compared with April 2014. This was the 25th consecutive month of year-on-year growth, the longest period of sustained growth since May 2008 when there were 31 periods of growth.
• The underlying pattern in the data, as suggested by the 3 month on 3 month movement in the quantity bought, continued to show growth for the 26th consecutive month, increasing by 0.7%. This is the longest period of sustained growth since consistent records began in June 1996.
• Compared with March 2015, the quantity bought in the retail industry is estimated to have increased by 1.2%. All store types except predominantly food stores showed growth.
• Average store prices (including petrol stations) fell for the 10th consecutive month, falling by 3.2% compared with April 2014. The largest contribution to the year-on-year fall once again came from petrol stations which fell by 11.5%, the 20th consecutive month of year-on-year falling prices in this store type.
• In April 2015, the amount spent in the retail industry increased by 1.8% compared with April 2014 and by 1.1% compared with March 2015. Non-seasonally adjusted data show that the average weekly spend in the retail industry was £6.9 billion, unchanged from the previous month and the April 2014 figure.
• The value of sales made online increased by 3.7% compared with March 2015 and accounted for 12.2% of all retail sales in April 2015. Online sales increased by 13.1% compared with April 2014.
• Revisions in this release were caused by the incorporation of late data. The earliest revisions point for current price, non-seasonally adjusted data was April 2014. More information on revisions can be found in the background notes.

Get all the tables for this publication in the data section of this publication.