U.K. retail sales remain unchanged in Sep as warm weather hits consumer demand

Retail sales in the United Kingdom remained unchanged during the month of September, as warm weather amid rising prices of retail products hit consumer demand for clothing and footwear.

U.K.’s retail sales excluding auto fuel were unchanged from August. Small increases on both measures had been anticipated by market participants, data released by the Office for National Statistics showed Thursday.

Further, clothing and footwear sales fell 2.8 percent after prices surged 5.2 percent on the month and Britain enjoyed one of the warmest Septembers on record. A strong July helped retail sales increase 1.8 percent in the three months through September, the best quarter since the end of 2014.

Sales of food and non-food both fell. Declines were offset by household goods, up 3.7 percent, and non-store sales, which gained 1.5 percent. Fuel sales remained unchanged. In the three months to September, retail sales volumes grew by 1.8 percent on the quarter, the fastest rate since the fourth quarter of 2014 and up from 1.1 percent in the three months to June.

Against this background, a weaker pound is further expected to stoke consumer inflation, weighing on the latter’s pockets. Also, data released on Wednesday showed that real wages in Britain grew at the slowest pace since early last year.

Meanwhile, Britain's economy expanded by 0.7 percent in the three months to June; however, the Bank of England expects this to slow to 0.3 percent in the current quarter.