Retail Sales, July 2014

22nd August 2014

In July 2014, the quantity bought in the retail industry increased by 2.6% compared with July 2013 and by 0.1% compared with June 2014.
The three-month on previous three-month movement in the quantity bought showed continued growth for the seventeenth consecutive month increasing by 0.3%. This was the longest period of sustained growth since November 2007.

Average prices of goods sold in July 2014 compared with July 2013 showed deflation of 0.9%. Food stores were the only sector to show an increase in prices (0.2%). There has been declining growth in this series with July 2014 showing the lowest growth since December 2004, when it fell by 0.1%. These data are consistent with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) which was published on 19 August 2014.

Since the food stores series began in January 1989, July 2014 was the first time we have seen a fall in the amount spent in food stores year-on-year (1.3%).

In July 2014, the amount spent in the retail industry increased by 1.7% compared with July 2013 and fell by 0.1% compared with June 2014. Non-seasonally adjusted data show that the average weekly spend in the retail industry in July 2014 was £7.0 billion compared with £6.9 billion in July 2013 and £7.0 billion in June 2014.

The amount spent online increased by 11.2% in July 2014 compared with July 2013 but decreased by 1.9% compared with June 2014.

Revisions to the time series are due to the incorporation of late data returns. More detail on revisions can be found in the revisions section of the background notes.