Retail sales volumes have fallen by more than expected as households cut back spending in the face of rising borrowing and energy costs.
The decline of 1.4% reported by the Office for National Statistics for September was much higher than the 0.5% forecast and followed last month’s slump of 1.7%. It came as the monthly consumer confidence report from GfK showed a near record reading of minus 47.
There was a further blow for the UK economy today when it emerged that public sector borrowing hit £20 billion in September, compared with £17.1 billion forecast.
