No matter how bad things are, Britons like to shop. At least latest retail sales data avail from the office of National Statistics suggests so. Retail sales in July, a month after the voters chose to part away from the European Union, rose by 1.4 percent and 1.5 percent when fuel is excluded. The yearly figure is more attractive. Retail sales are up 5.9 percent from a year back and up 5.4 percent when fuel is excluded. That’s some blockbuster data. It is the best reading since January 2015.

The data strongly suggests that there has been no material collapse in the UK economy, especially in the consumer spending as against the suggestions of economic Armageddon by economists before the vote. However, the doomsayers are still warning,

• That one shouldn’t read too much into the numbers as the numbers were widely expected to rebound after a drop before the referendum. In June, retail sales declined by 0.9 percent.
• They are also warning that the numbers like these are unlikely to last and the pain of the referendum would be felt over time.
• With firms reducing their hiring, inflation moving up in response to weaker pound and stagnant wage growth likely to hit consumer spending; this is supported currently by lower rates.

In addition to that, these retail numbers are more of good news for Europe than for the UK since the latter imports most of its consumer needs.

The pound, however, rose sharply as a response to the numbers and currently trading at 1.316 against the dollar.