Christmas comes early as November retail is strong says CBI

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 25, 2021

“Christmas came early” for UK retail in November. At least, that’s what some said as the latest CBI quarterly Distributive Trades Survey on Thursday showed sales were “good for the time of year”.

And the CBI said retail sales are expected to “remain above seasonal norms to broadly a similar extent next month”.

The survey of 125 companies, including 51 retailers, found that year-on-year retail sales growth accelerated in November, while internet sales fell for the first time in the 20 years they’ve been included in the study.

Of course, the tightening of Covid-19 restrictions in November 2020 weighed on overall volumes in physical stores but pushed up internet sales growth.

Retailers reported sales in November as strong for the time of year (with a balance of +35% being optimistic from -1% last month). And 32% expect more of the same in December.

The CBI also said year-on-year retail sales growth increased at a faster rate than last month (+39% from +30%) and is expected to pick up again strongly for December (+56%).

Retail selling prices also increased at the fastest pace since May 1990 and are expected to rise at a broadly similar pace next month.