Britain’s shoppers have taken advantage of the spring sunshine and stocked up on shorts and sandals early, which has contributed to the strongest growth in April clothing sales for more than five years.
Retail sales data from the Office for National Statistics, published on Thursday, showed the volume of clothing and footwear sales was 8.7% higher than the same month a year earlier.
It reported: “Feedback from retailers suggests that the warmer than average weather resulted in an increase in the quantity bought as consumers brought forward the purchase of summer clothes.”
Overall retail sales were also better than expected, rising by 4.7% year on year. It was an increase of 1.2% on the figure for March.
Average selling prices declined for the 10th consecutive month, by 3.2%, as the supermarket price war continued and the cost of petrol fell further. The total amount spent in the shops, at £27.8bn, was exactly the same as April 2014 – but falling prices meant shoppers got more for their money.
City analysts said the strong figures suggested consumers were spending again after a long-awaited rise in living standards. With pay growing at 1.7%, according to the latest figures, and inflation below zero in April, real wages have finally started to climb.
Jeremy Cook, the chief economist at the payments company World First, said: “The man in the street is finally starting to see wages increase in real terms and the stagnancy in inflation is allowing him to go out and shop.”
He said the jump in clothes sales was “a likely reaction to a week or so of good weather in April or shoppers buying their shorts and flip-flops before a cheap week in Europe through the Easter holidays”.
However, Chris Williamson, the chief economist at the data provider Markit, said continued strong growth in consumer spending, coupled with rising inflation – which is expected in the coming months as oil prices increase – could push the Bank of England towards tightening monetary policy sooner than expected.
He said: “With retail sales numbers as strong as these seen in April, rate hikes later this year are certainly a growing possibility.” The Bank’s quarterly inflation report, published last week, suggested the first interest rate rise would not come until mid-2016.
