April 2018 UK Retail Sales: Very Weak Month Due to Earlier Easter

Key Points

Coresight Research’s monthly reports keep you up to date on US and UK retail sales, US retail traffic and in-store metrics, selected US retailers’ same-store sales and key global consumer indicators. Click here to view our full collection of Monthly Reports.

Our monthly UK Retail Sales Report reviews the latest sector data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Highlights from our April UK Retail Sales Report:

• April was an exceptionally weak month for year-over-year retail sales growth. Value sales were up just 0.8% year over year and volumes were down 1.2%. An early Easter hit April sales: Easter Sunday fell on April 1 this year versus April 16 last year, and this pulled some Easter-related spending forward into March.
• The non weighted average of March and April value growth was a more respectable 3.1%. This was comfortably above the rate of shop-price inflation, which stood at 2.0% across March and April.