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UK retail sales rebounded 12 percent in May as some shops reopened, having slumped a record 18 percent in April after the country entered coronavirus lockdown, official data showed Friday.
"Retail sales volumes partly rebounded in May... but sales were still down by 13.1 percent on February before the impact of the coronavirus," the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.
"Non-food stores provided the largest positive contribution to the monthly growth in May", led by a 42 percent surge in sales across household goods shops, the ONS added.
A luxury clothing store at Bicester Village outlet shopping center in the UK. /VCG
Britain went into lockdown on March 23, but this week the government allowed non-essential shops, such as clothing stores, to reopen.
A surge in online shopping during the lockdown also helped retailers to recover in May, but the sector and overall economy remains shattered by the fallout from the pandemic.
"Naturally, spending on goods will recover faster than on services, which usually require human contact and remain largely unavailable," noted Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
The data come a day after the Bank of England said it would provide further cash stimulus worth 100 billion pounds (126 billion U.S. dollars or 112 billion euros) to prop up Britain's coronavirus-hit economy.
That move comes on top of BoE stimulus worth 200 billion pounds to get retail banks lending to businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The central bank has also slashed its main interest rate to a record-low 0.1 percent to aid the economy.
Source(s): AFP
