Retail sales remain weak in Great Britain

Retail sales in Great Britain fell for the second month running in the year to June, following April’s brief respite, the CBI announced this week.

The decline, broadly in line with retailers’ expectations, was no worse than in May however, and less severe than falls recorded between July 2008 and March 2009. In the CBI’s latest Distributive Trades Survey, while 31% of retailers said year-on-year sales volumes rose in the first two weeks of June, 48 percent said they were down, giving a balance of -17 percent.