Lower food price inflation caused a weakening in food sales growth in the four weeks to 31 October in London despite a 4.2% year-on-year rise in like-for-like retail sales overall.
According to the BRC-KPMG London Retail Sales Monitor, sterling’s weakness against the euro continued to attract consumers to the capital from the rest of Europe and could bode well for the Christmas period.
Stephen Robertson, director general, British Retail Consortium, said: “These are the first solid signs that it will be a better retail Christmas than 2008. London sales were well up on the dismal performance of a year ago and outperformed the rest of the UK, though not to quite the same extent as in recent months.
Helen Dickinson, head of retail, KPMG, said: “October’s like-for-like sales growth of 4.2% is encouraging in the lead-up to Christmas, and compared with the 2.6% fall in like-for-like sales last October, shows that for at least some of the capital’s consumers, confidence is on the up. The next few weeks will be crucial for retailers but these latest figures should hopefully be cause for greater optimism. ”
