The Live Wire



Press Release

ONS confirms Easter boost to retail

22 April 2010

Reacting to the latest retail sales figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), published today (Thursday), the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said they confirm March’s strong retail sales growth was Easter-driven.

British Retail Consortium Director General Stephen Robertson said:” This confirms the strong retail sales growth seen in March was mainly caused by the distorting effect of Easter. The seasonally adjusted figures actually show growth slowed compared with February.

“There was a big boost to food sales caused by Easter falling a week earlier than last year, with the first half of the Bank Holiday weekend falling into this March’s reporting period. Last year’s very weak performance also helped to flatter the annual comparison.

“Our own figures show most of the sales growth was in the week leading up to Easter. While customers are more confident than they were this time last year, the political and economic uncertainty surrounding the election is holding back underlying spending for now.”



Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.

As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.

British Retail Consortium

More from Dods

© Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd