UK Retail Sales Recover On Warm Weather

UK retail sales recovered at a faster-than-expected pace in June as warm weather boosted clothing demand.

Retail sales grew 0.6 percent month-on-month in June, reversing a 1.1 percent fall in May, data from the Office for National Statistics showed Thursday. Sales were forecast to gain 0.4 percent.

Excluding auto fuel, retail sales climbed climbed 0.9 percent, in contrast to a 1.5 percent decrease in the previous month. Economists had forecast a 0.5 percent increase.

June's retail sales figures suggest that recent talk of a marked consumer slowdown has been overdone and provides another reason to think that next week's GDP figures should reveal a re-acceleration in overall growth in the second quarter, Capital Economics' economist Paul Hollingsworth said.

The ONS is slated to release preliminary GDP data for the second quarter on July 26.

A particularly warm June seems to have prompted strong sales in clothing, which has compensated for a decline in food and fuel sales this month, ONS statistician Kate Davies said.

Food store sales fell 0.5 percent, while non-food store sales advanced 1.8 percent in June.

On a yearly basis, retail sales growth accelerated to 2.9 percent from 0.9 percent. This was also faster than the expected 2.5 percent.

Likewise, sales volume excluding auto fuel improved to 3 percent from 0.6 percent. Sales were forecast to grow 2.5 percent.

In the three months to June, retail sales volume grew 1.5 percent with increases seen across all store types.