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25th January 2010
Retailers subjected to ONS 'pessimism'
Retail sales over the Christmas period may have been better than official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest.
That is according to the British Retail Consortium, which indicates that ONS figures do not fit with suggestions from individual retailers that the Christmas period brought increased trade.
While the ONS reports that retail sales increased by only 0.3 per cent between November and December – the weakest monthly increase since 2007 - the BRC reveals that a number of retailers experienced double-digit sales growth.
Analysts had widely expected a December sales rise of 1.1 per cent.
Vicky Redwood, of Capital Economics, said: "The fact that these figures are so different from the anecdotal evidence suggests that the ONS might be overdoing the gloom and could be revised up."
Furthermore, inaccurate retail sales figures could have contributed to misjudgment over when the recession ended, having perhaps happened in the last quarter of 2009.
© 2010
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