The UK economy is presenting a ’mixed picture’ of its recovery, according to a new report from the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
Key points from the BRC’s Economic Briefing Report for July 2021 are as followed:
- May growth disappointed, with GDP growing by 0.8%, significantly below market expectations of 1.5% and April’s growth of 2.0%. May marks the fourth consecutive month of growth, nevertheless, output remains 3.1% smaller than in February 2020.
- Retail sales saw another month of buoyant sales in June, with growth reaching 13.1% Yo2Y, above May’s growth of 10.0%.
- June’s inflation reached 2.5%, its highest level since August 2018. Some of the price rises are a reversal of the pandemic trend when many goods and commodities saw prices fall significantly.
- 172,000 of retail employees remained furloughed in June, down from 221,000 in May. In the UK as a whole, there were 1.9mill furloughed employees in the UK, down from 2.7mill in May. But the number of payroll employees in the UK increased in June for the seventh consecutive month, with employment rising in some regions above pre-pandemic levels.
- BRC-LDC data shows retail vacancies rose to 14.5% in Q2, the highest rate recorded, and above the rate of 12.4% in Q2 2020. The pandemic accelerated the shift to online and changed consumption patterns, triggering the permanent closure of some shops.