Monday 28 November 2022

Retail sales are falling

Retail weakening

Retail turnover was down -0.2 per cent in October, and -0.6 per cent excluding food purchases.

James Foster with the graph:

Given retail prices have increased, including for food after recent flooding, this suggests that retail turnover in volume terms is sinking.

And particularly so for household goods and department store retailing. 

I used to do detailed analysis of all the figures by sector and state, but it seems superfluous now as other people are doing it better and on a more timely basis!

Alex Joiner from IFM:

Source: Alex Joiner

It's a really big week for economic data, which will serve as a decent litmus test for how much the economy has slowed so far as a result of the tightening of monetary policy.

Given new home sales have collapsed, I would guess that the economy has slowed a bit to date, but that'll be nothing compared to what we see in 2023.