UK retail sales fell in November as lockdown hit stores

[LONDON] British retail sales fell 3.8 per cent on the month in November when a four-week lockdown in England closed stores selling non-essential goods to the public, official figures showed on Friday.

Compared with a year earlier, sales volumes in November were up 2.4 per cent, the Office for National Statistics said, below the 2.8 per cent increase forecast in a Reuters poll of economists, although the decline in November alone was less than predicted.

REUTERS