Christmas retail sales will bounce back, says report
BRITISH retail sales will rise 1.9 per cent over Christmas, bouncing back from last year’s decline, but below the increases of the previous nine years, according to research published yesterday.
The Centre for Retail Research forecast retail sales would rise £832m to £44.7bn in the last six weeks of 2009.
That compares with a £27m decline in the same period of 2008 and the average rise of £1.1bn over the preceding nine years.
The research, commissioned by shopping comparison website Kelkoo, predicted the rise in sales could result in up to 4,500 new jobs by January.
Much of the growth would be driven by online retail sales, which are forecast to rise 24 per cent to £8.9bn, accounting for 20p in every pound of spending.
Retail sales have held up better than many analysts had feared in the recession.