British retailers suffered their biggest fall in sales since the 2008 financial crisis in the first half of April as the coronavirus kept shoppers at home and forced store closures, the Confederation of British Industry said on Tuesday.
FILE PHOTO - A man walks across a road by closed shops in Shoreditch as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues, London, Britain, April 11, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
Britain’s total economic output could fall by more than a third in the second quarter of this year due to measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 that have closed most non-essential stores, the government’s budget forecasters have said. “Near-term fundamentals for consumer spending have clearly taken a substantial downturn as a result of coronavirus,” said Howard Archer of EY ITEM Club, which predicts a 15% fall in consumer spending during the second quarter.
Figures from retail data company Kantar published on Tuesday showed a 5.5% rise in grocery spending in the four weeks to April 19, which included the run-up to the lockdown.
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