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British retailers benefit from bumper Black Friday sales
In November, UK shoppers derived benefits from electrical goods as well as other Black Friday bargains, providing a suddenly big boost to retail sales that contrasted with earlier indications of a subdued start to Christmas spending.
Most of this year British customers have been affected by the highest inflation for six years, while wages weren’t keeping up.
However, in November data there was some sudden cheer for UK customers from the Office for National Statistics. The data disclosed that sales volumes turned to be 1.6% higher than in 2016, confounding all estimates in a Reuters survey of economists.
As for spending in cash terms, it edged up 4.7%.
In general, the market reaction was quite muted. Some market experts told the jump in retail sales might point to Christmas spending brought forward just to take advantage of Black Friday discounts.
Obviously, the figures might ensure some reassurance for the BoE that lifted interest rates for the first time in more than a decade the previous month.
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