Consumers’ underlying uncertainty about jobs and incomes have hit retails sales very sharply, according to figures out today by the British Retail Consortium.

Stephen Robertson, Director General, British Retail Consortium, said today:

This is the worst drop in total sales since we first collected these figures in 1995. Non-food retailers were particularly hard-hit. This is strong evidence of the pressure customers and traders are under. This year’s later Easter is a factor but this fall goes way beyond anything that can be explained by that alone.

Uncomfortably high inflation and low wage growth have produced the first year-on-year fall in disposable incomes for thirty years. Mounting fuel and utility costs, falling house prices, higher VAT and the prospect of more tax rises and job losses left people unwilling to spend unless they really had to.

These pressures aren’t going away and the arrival of higher National Insurance is likely to compound them in the immediate future.

The next interest rate decision is a difficult balancing act for the Bank of England but, for now, supporting our weak economy must be the priority.

Don’t worry guys, George Osborne’s Enterprise Zones will turn things around!

It’s not like lefties predicted that adding more uncertainty into the economy through deep cuts would make things worse huh?

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   Retail sales fall off a cliff: 'biggest in 16 years' http://bit.ly/ftG3zz

2. Adam Jennison

   RT @libcon: Retail sales fall off a cliff: 'biggest in 16 years' http://bit.ly/ftG3zz

3. Lee Hyde

   RT @libcon: Retail sales fall off a cliff: 'biggest in 16 years' http://bit.ly/ftG3zz

4. Chris Keegan

   RT @libcon: Retail sales fall off a cliff: 'biggest in 16 years' http://bit.ly/ftG3zz

5. Martin Shovel

   RT @libcon: Retail sales fall off a cliff: 'biggest in 16 years' http://bit.ly/ftG3zz

6. Greg Sheppard

   RT @libcon: Retail sales fall off a cliff: 'biggest in 16 years' http://bit.ly/ftG3zz

7. Soho Politico

   RT @libocn Retail sales fall off a cliff http://t.co/JzUtafV Sunny: Don’t worry guys, Osborne’s Enterprise Zones will turn things around!

8. Is Labour preparing for the coming economic upheaval? Doesn’t look like it | Liberal Conspiracy

   [...] today’s entirely unsurprising news that retails sales have had the biggest slump in 16 years. Add that to the manufacturing slump, constant cuts to growth predictions and falling real wages [...]

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.