UK retail sales improved in July as more people bought picnic food and summer fashion items during the heatwave.
Figures from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG show that total sales increased by 2.3% in the month compared to an uplift of 6.4% in July 2021. On a like-for-like basis sales grew by 1.6%.
Over the three months to July, total food sales edged up 2.3%, although non-food retail sales decreased by 2% in the period. During the same time, in-store sales of non-food items increased by 2% on a total basis on July 2021.
Meanwhile online non-food sales fell by 3.9% in July, against a decline of 0.6% in the same month last year.
