Retail sales in the United Kingdom remained stable in March, data from a survey by the Confederation of British Industries (CBI) showed Tuesday.
Retailers reporting an increase in sales in March accounted for 33 percent of those surveyed. An equal amount of retailers reported decrease in sales, leading to a flat balance that suggested that sales on the high street are stabilizing. Economists were looking for a balance of -5 for the month.
Among sub-sectors, the furniture and carpets industry recorded improvement in sales for the second consecutive month, while grocers reported that the increasing trend started in December last year continued this month.
Motor traders, who saw their first increase in sales since December 2010, said they expect the trend to continue in the next month.
Firms, however, said that overall sales were still low for the time of year, and said that over the next month they expect both volume of sales and the volume of orders on suppliers to remain subdued.
"It is encouraging that sales on our high streets are stabilizing and, while we are still not seeing growth, conditions have improved since the end of last year,", Judith McKenna, Chair of the CBI Distributive Trades Panel, said. "However, the general retail outlook remains tough and firms expect volumes of sales and orders to fall next month."
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Economic News
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.