After a long, cold and sometimes lonely winter for shopkeepers, at last there are glimmers of sunshine. Retail sales volume surged in May as shoppers shelled out £6.8 billion a week, the highest figure since records began.
Although the rise was partly a recovery from a miserable March and April, depressed by the coldest spring for 50 years, it was also seen as the result of rising consumer confidence buoyed by better economic news and less fear of unemployment. Intriguingly, a survey by American Express claims people using loyalty card rewards more aggressively added up to £3 billion to household budgets over the past year.
Then there is the news that the housing market is finally picking up, as first-time buyers return in force. Mortgage lending has surged to its highest level since the 2008 crisis: the government’s Funding for Lending and Help to Buy schemes, designed to stimulate the market, may prove imprudent in the long run, but they are good news for retailers.
The stock market, as ever, anticipated some of these factors by pushing the shares of most retailers up over the past year.
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