SUCCESSIVE interest rate rises, plus August's unpredictably humid weather, has resulted in shopkeepers enduring the slowest sales performance since March last year.
As reported in the Evening Press, some York traders may have had a good August Bank Holiday, but the CBI's latest quarterly Distributive Trades Survey shows that July's unexpected slowdown in sales continued throughout August despite expectations of a pick-up.
Thirty-four per cent of firms said sales were up on a year ago, while 32 per cent said they were down. The balance of plus two per cent compares with plus 24 per cent in the July survey.
This balance is the lowest since March 2003, when it was minus 13 per cent and sales were in decline.
Retailers rated sales as "average for the time of year" and they are optimistic for improvement in September. The underlying trend in sales growth has fallen back to where it was in April, down from the recent peaks in June and July.
Updated: 11:17 Tuesday, September 07, 2004
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