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United Kingdom Retail

United Kingdom Retail

Retail Sales in United Kingdom

In the decade leading up to 2022, the United Kingdom's economy recorded an average growth rate of 2.1% in retail sales. This is below the 3.5% average for Major Economies. In 2022, retail sales growth was -3.3%.

United Kingdom Retail Chart

Note: This chart displays Retail Sales (ann. var. %) for United Kingdom from 2014 to 2023.
Source: UK Office for National Statistics.

United Kingdom Retail Data

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Retail Sales (ann. s.a. var. %) 2.4 3.2 -1.8 5.2 -3.3

Retail sales bounce back in January

Retail sales grew 3.4% in month-on-month seasonally adjusted terms in January, which contrasted December's 3.3% decrease. The result marked the best reading since April 2021 and was more than twice as high as markets were expecting. Sales rose in all subsectors except clothing stores, with food stores contributing most to the month-on-month increase. On an annual basis, retail sales increased 0.7% in January, rebounding from December’s 2.4% fall and marked the best result since March 2022. Moreover, the trend improved, with the annual average variation of retail sales coming in at minus 2.3% in January, up from December's minus 2.7% reading.

Consensus Forecasts and Projections for the next ten years

How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects British retail projections for the next ten years from a panel of 2 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable retail forecast available for British retail.

Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our British retail projections.

Want to get access to the full dataset of British retail forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.

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