January retail sales plunge

RETAIL sales in Britain tumbled and government borrowing soared in January after the country re-entered lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic, official data showed last Friday (19).

Retail sales plunged 8.2 per cent last month compared with December, the sharpest fall since April 2020, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. “All sectors saw a monthly decline in volume sales... except for non-store retailers and food stores,” the ONS added.

Separate ONS figures showed government net borrowing hit £8.8 billion in January, a record for the month and the first January deficit for a decade. The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) looking at services and manufacturing stood at 49.8 in February, with anything below 50 seen as contraction.

While manufacturing grew, services contracted sharply, the PMI data showed. Since April 2020, public sector net borrowing has ballooned by £270.6 billion, the ONS said.