British retail sales put in their best performance in 10 months in the run-up to Christmas, an industry survey signalled today.
The Confederation of British Industry's monthly distributive trades survey sales balance jumped 35 points to 0 in December - its highest since February and indicating that volumes matched year ago levels after big annual declines in previous months.
That was the biggest one-month improvement in the survey, which has been consistently gloomier than official data, in more than 10 years and easily outstripped retailers' and analysts expectations for December.
The CBI noted that its survey was better than expected, bringing it more in line with other indicators of retail spending, but said the improvement was due to aggressive price cutting.
"Christmas, in retailing terms, is coming later and later each year as consumers play chicken with the high street and delay their spending in the expectation of late price cuts as the big day draws nearer," said Ian McCafferty, the CBI's chief economic adviser.
The big growth areas in December were in groceries, footwear and clothing which benefited from the colder weather, the CBI said.
Retailers still predict sales will decline next month, with the expectations balance at -9 - still its highest since June.