Retail sales rose by 4.2 per cent in April on a year-on-year, like-for-like basis, with sales growth for the twelve months to April this year up 2.8 per cent compared to the 12 months to April 2013.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) report said that the amount of money spent in stores last month was 5.7 per cent higher than a year earlier, the biggest annual rise since April 2011.
However, the amount dropped by 0.3 per cent on the year in March but total retail spending in the three months to April was 1.9 per cent higher than the same period in 2013.
The scale of the April increase was mostly due to the timing of Easter, which fell in March in 2013 but in April this year, although the BRC said that underlying sales were also strong in most sectors other than food and drink. For example, clothing and footwear did well over the period, as the weather was much milder than this time last year.
In addition, rising house prices pushed consumers into buying new furniture, flooring, paint and other home improvement items over the Easter holidays rather than shop for property, which also helped the figures.
According to the BRC, while the strong results benefitted from the timing of Easter, it is also clear that the effects of the wider economic recovery are feeding through into retail sales.
However, it will be interesting to see what the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) data for April on retail sales show on May 21, as the ONS figures cover more small stores than the BRC and also focus more on the volume of goods sold than the amount of money households spend.