LONDON (Reuters) – British retail sales tumbled much more than expected in January as non-essential shops went back into coronavirus lockdowns, official data showed on Friday.
Retail sales volumes fell 8.2% compared with December, a far bigger fall than the 2.5% decrease forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.
The Office for National Statistics also said public sector borrowing for January came in at 8.8 billion pounds ($12.3 billion), less than a forecast of 24.5 billion pounds in the Reuters poll.
That took borrowing since the start of the financial year in April to 270.6 billion pounds, reflecting the huge increase in spending and tax cuts ordered by finance minister Rishi Sunak since the start of the pandemic.
($1 = 0.7160 pounds)
Reporting by David Milliken; editing by William James