THE high street suffered its worst January in at least 15 years after snow and economic woes hurt sales, the British Retail Consortium said today.
The “awful” start to 2010 followed the strongest December for eight years and dampened hopes of a strong retail recovery. Total UK sales rose 1.2% on a year earlier in the month, the lowest ever reading for the month since the BRC’s Retail Sales Monitor began in 1995.
Same-store sales values fell 0.7% in January compared with the same period last year, which was the worst figure for 14 years.
The figures are much lower than economists’ expectations of total sales growth of 3.3% and like-for-like increases of 0.5%.
They are also steeply down from the respective rises of 6% and 4.2% seen in December.
Severe weather kept shoppers off the high street at the beginning of the month, while the impact of a higher VAT rate and economic uncertainty also saw consumers focus on essentials at the expense of other items.
