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British retail sales increases 4.3 pct in Dec.

Xinhua, January 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

Britain's retail sales volume increased by 4.3 percent in December 2014 compared with that of a year earlier, recording the 21st consecutive month of year-on-year growth, said the country's Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Friday.

In December, the quantity bought edged up by 0.4 percent compared with November 2014 following an increase in November of 1.6 percent, figures showed.

The retail industry's performance was better than market expectations.

The main contribution to this increase in growth was from non-store retail, with an 8.2 percent increase year-on-year in December, ONS data showed.

Predominantly, food stores and non-food stores sales grew by 0.8 percent and 6.7 percent respectively. Fuel store sales increased by 5.2 percent over the same period.

In amount spent term or value term, retail industry's sales in December increased by 1.9 percent year-on-year, or grew by 0.2 percent compare with November 2014, said ONS.

The amount spent online increased by 8.0 percent year-on-year in December, but dropped by 2.8 percent compared to that of November, data showed. The value of purchases made online accounted for 11.3 percent of all retail sales.

The average store prices slipped by 2.2 percent year-on-year in December, the largest fall since June 2002, mainly due to the price drop in petrol prices, figures also showed. Endit