Retailers squeezed in October

The hard-pressed high street saw another month of weak growth in October, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said.

Like-for-like sales, which strip out the effect of new shop floor space, grew 0.8pc compared to a year earlier, following 0.5pc growth in September, on the BRC/KPMG retail sales monitor.

However, the improvement reflected rising shop prices as increased commodity costs were passed on to consumers, rather than better volumes.

When inflation was factored in, total non-food sales actually fell in real terms, the BRC said.

Source : Emma Rowley - Telegraph.co.uk