UK retail sales rose more than economists forecast in February as tumbling inflation boosted consumer confidence.
The volume of sales including auto fuel rose 0.7 per cent from January, the Office for National Statistics said in London Thursday.
Economists forecast a 0.4 per cent increase, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. It was the fifth consecutive increase and left sales 5.7 per cent higher than a year earlier.
Consumer spending is being underpinned by the return of wage growth for the first time since the financial crisis after a plunge in oil prices.
Inflation fell to zero in February. The prices of shop goods as measured by the deflator fell 3.6 per cent from a year earlier, the biggest drop since records began in 1996.
All categories of retail sales rose last month. Sales of household goods gained 1.2 per cent on the month, boosted by increasing housing transactions, the ONS said. Clothing and footwear rose one per cent and sales at department stores climbed 1.7 per cent.
Overall, non-food sales rose 0.9 sales, while food sales gained 0.2 per cent. Sales of auto fuel climbed 0.4 percent as retailers cut pump prices. Fuel prices as measured by the deflator fell an annual 15.5 per cent last month.
Retail sales excluding auto fuel rose 0.7 per cent on the month and by 5.1 per cent on the year. In the three months through February, total retail sales rose two percent from the period through November.
News by Bloomberg, edited by ESM
