British shops register record high sales

Retail sales in British shops in May reached the highest level on record, and was 6 percent higher than the same month a year ago. At the same time, average prices were 2.8 percent cheaper than a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported Thursday.

In May, British shoppers spent 41 billion U.S. dollars in stores, over 1.4 billion U.S. dollars higher than in May 2015.

All shop types registered increased sales, except clothing and footwear which were down in May compared to a year earlier.

The ONS report showed that almost half of the money spent in shops in May went on food, with sales 4.2 percent higher than a year earlier. It meant over 4.2 billion U.S. dollars worth of food was sold in Britain in May.

A spokesman for ONS said: "The amount spent in shops remained fairly flat between January 2010 and late 2015. But since then the amount spent has increased gradually to the highest level on record in May 2016 and is now 14.6 percent higher than it was in January 2010."

ONS said average weekly spending online in May 2016 was 1.36 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 21.5 percent compared with May 2015. The amount spent online accounted for 14.3 percent of all retail spending compared with 12.1 percent in May 2015. Endit