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Trade News Archive 2009 January February March April May
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8th May 2009
UK enjoys strongest monthly footfall rise in five years
Shoppers began returning to the UK's high streets last month as new figures reveal the strongest year-on-year rise in monthly retail footfall since February 2004.
April saw 4.4 per cent more consumers browsing the shops than during the same month last year and 7.6 per cent more than in March 2009, according to the latest retail traffic index from Synovate.
The market intelligence company said that the uplifting results represented "healthy" monthly and yearly increases, but warned retailers against interpreting them as the much-anticipated 'green shoots of recovery'.
Dr Tim Denison, a retail psychologist at Synovate, said that home furnishings, garden centres and DIY had all benefitted warm weather and the "until-now repressed 'spring-clean' mentality."
"Looking ahead for May, we are not anticipating another stellar month, but we believe it will be a steady one, as consumer confidence and the return to the shops continues," he said.
However, the expert did suggest that the retail sector is "beginning to bounce along the bottom of the downturn rather than continuing to plummet".
Figures for last month from the British Retail Consortium-Nielsen shop price index revealed the first fall in annual inflation since December 2008, when the VAT cut was introduced.
(c) 2009
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