// Retail sales remain sluggish and below their pre-pandemic levels, ONS finds
// Sales volumes excluding fuel dropped 6.7% year on year, continuing a downward trend
Retail sales remain below their pre-pandemic levels, as the UK heads into a recession.
Sales volumes excluding fuel dropped 6.7% year on year, continuing a downward trend seen since summer 2021, according to data from the ONS.
Retail sales volumes rose by 0.6% in October 2022 following a fall of 1.5% in September.
Retail remains 0.6% below its pre #COVID19 level.
➡️ https://t.co/yBOtcYl7Zv pic.twitter.com/O0XjK4Bgej
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) November 18, 2022
In value terms, retail sales excluding fuel increased 2.9% – and 13.1% on pre-Covid levels – driven by rampant inflation across the UK market.
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Sales volumes and values increased modestly month on month, up 0.3% and 1.0% respectively, as September was impacted by store closures during Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.
Stores selling food faced the steepest sales drop during the month, where volume sales fell by 1.0% for the month, 4.1% below the pre-Covid level seen in February 2020.
“Food sales volumes have followed a downward trend since summer 2021 following the lifting of restrictions on hospitality,” ONS said.
“In recent months, supermarkets have highlighted that they are seeing a decline in volumes sold because of increased cost of living and food prices.”
By comparison, non-food stores’ sales volumes rose by 1.1%, leaving them 1.7% below pre-pandemic levels.
Online retail sales volumes rose 1.8% in October, following a drop of 2.5% in September, and the proportion of sales spent online was 26.1% for the month, which the ONS described as being a broadly consistent level since May this year.
