Dismal December for retailers
- 00:01:15
- ITN
Dismal December for retailers
New figures show Christmas spending on the High Street fell to a 14-year low. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) report shows sales were down by more than 3 per cent compared to last December. The organisation says even the blizzard of promotions and cut-price deals did not seduce customers into spending. KPMG's head of retail Helen Dickinson said: "December's performance has historically set the scene for the year ahead, so the outlook is indeed bleak. "Although the food sector continues to hold up, most non-food retailers are having to manage the 'double whammy' of falling sales and falling margins and this doesn't look like changing any time soon." Food and drink was one of the few sectors to see an increase in sales during the five week period from November 30 to January 3. But even food retailers saw the weakest sales growth since March and the BRC said sales were also inflated by higher prices. The gloomy outlook was echoed by the British Chambers of Commerce in its fourth quarter economic survey, which said both the manufacturing and service sectors recorded their worst figures since records began in 1989. The BCC said it had been taken by surprise by the severity of the downturn and would be almost certain to revise downwards the predictions it made for the UK economy just two weeks ago. Director General David Frost said: "Quite frankly the last time I saw anything of this magnitude of decline was when I worked in the West Midlands in the early 80s. The sheer scale of this comes as a surprise to many of us."
ITN | January 13, 2009
