Inflation continued to eat into shoppers’ budgets in February, data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) shows.
Although overall sales increased by 0.6% on a like-for-like basis last month, non-food sales, when measured across the same shops as the previous year, fell by 1.1% in the three months to February, which is well below the 12-month average.
“The headwinds to retail spending continued to blow strong in February,” said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC. “Inflation is still eating into shoppers’ budgets, pushing them to spend a greater share of their income on essentials and leaving less left over to buy discretionary, predominantly non-food, retail items,” she added.
