BEER sales fell more than 8% in the first three months of the year compared with 2008, figures showed today.
The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) said 1.7m fewer pints were drunk daily from January to March than in the same period last year.
Sales in pubs, bars, restaurants, supermarkets and off-licences were all down.
The BBPA, which is running the Axe the Beer Tax – Save the Pub drive with the Campaign for Real Ale, said total beer sales were down 8.2%, sales in pubs, bars and restaurants were down 6.3% and supermarket and off-licence beer sales were down 11%.
It is the “highest quarter fall since 1997”, a spokesman said.
The BBPA’s UK Quarterly Beer Barometer showed a total of 68m fewer pints – more than 750,000 a day – were sold.
The BBPA added this “must raise questions over the Government’s continued policy of raising Beer Tax”.
