Scottish Retail Consortium/KPMG has reported like-for-like sales in December were 1.4% higher than in December 2008, when they had risen 0.8%. Total sales in December were 4.3% up on a year ago.
December’s like-for-like sales growth was better than November’s decline but slightly weaker than in August – October. Both food and non-food sales growth improved from November.
Food sales growth benefited from Christmas purchasing. Very cold snowy weather gave a good uplift to clothing and footwear after several months of declines. Homewares, furniture and beauty products all improved, helped by Christmas and clearance sales.
Like-for-like sales growth was slower than that in the UK, for the fourth month in a row. UK sales were 4.2% up on December 2008, when they had dropped 3.3%, much worse than the 0.8% increase in Scotland.
