- UK retail sales (Dec) – 19/01 – the UK consumer saw a big rebound in spending in November after 2-months of weak demand, rising 1.3% comfortably beating forecasts of 0.4%. an improvement in consumer confidence along with sharp falls in the price of petrol appear to have prompted some resilience in consumer demand with Black Friday sales helping to bring forward some early pre-Christmas spending. A sharp reduction in the energy price cap in October may also have helped boost confidence along with lower mortgage rates. The rebound in consumer spending has also raised the hope the UK economy will avoid a technical recession. In the last 2-weeks we've also seen several retailers report strong pre-Christmas trading updates which augurs well for a positive December retail sales number, following on from the November rebound.
