Retail sales rise as sun shines
The early summer sunshine tempted shoppers to splash their cash on the high street last month, according to figures revealing the first rise in retail sales since February.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said May's warm weather saw like-for-like sales rise 1.9% - with clothing sales up on last year for the first time in nine months.
But the sunshine masked difficult underlying trading conditions, with widespread discounting among retailers and falling sales in some areas, the BRC warned.
While food and drink sales strengthened, the BRC/KPMG Retail Sales Monitor showed demand for furniture and homewares continuing to fall, and sales of "big ticket" electrical items also slowing further.
The BRC's March and April surveys sparked fears over the health of the retail sector with news of the worst sales performance for three years. Retail sales dropped 1.6% year-on-year in March, followed by a 1.5% fall in April as worries over the economy and housing market hit consumer confidence.
Helen Dickinson, head of retail at KPMG, said: "May's figures represent a significant improvement on the previous couple of months and were achieved through a much more consistent performance across the different sectors, the exception being anything home-related, particularly big-ticket electricals which continue to struggle.
"However, promotional activity across all sectors was the order of the day and, as the weekly performance deteriorated as the month progressed, along with the weather, there will be few hailing May's results as the benchmark for the coming months."
The BRC's May figures showed that on a three-month basis, retail sales figures fell 0.5%.
Stephen Robertson, director general of the BRC, said retailers were "not out of the woods yet" despite May's year-on-year rise.
"The housing slowdown and tighter household budgets meant that, despite heavy discounting, furniture sales were well down on a year ago and there was a continued slowdown for electrical goods," he said.
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