U.K. retail sales surged in January; growing 4.5% on monthly basis in World Economy News 21/02/2026 U.K. retail sales surged in January, eclipsing the previous month’s hefty jump, suggesting consumers retained a degree of confidence into the new year. On a monthly basis, gained 1.8% last month, compared with December’s 0.4% jump, according to data released by the Office of National Statistics data earlier Friday. rose by 4.5% on an annual basis, having risen by 1.9% the prior month, revised down from the earlier announcement of 2.5% annual growth. Economists had predicted that retail sales, which mostly reflect goods and are not adjusted for inflation, would rise 0.2% on the month, and by 2.8% on an annual basis. “The 1.8% m/m rise in retail sales volumes in January was the second consecutive gain and the largest since May 2024,” said analysts at Capital Economics, in a note. “It left sales volumes at their highest level since August 2022.” The sharp increase in retail sales at the end of last year had been unexpected, and was driven by strong online performance, and followed the Autumn budget by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, ending uncertainty over the extent of tax rises needed to fund higher public spending. That said, despite these signs of consumer resilience, 2026 is still projected to see weak consumer spending growth, with continued challenges from inflation and a tight labor market. “With employment growth weak and wage growth slowing, households won’t be able to maintain this rate of spending,” added Capital Economics. “Overall, it’s clear that the economy has strengthened since the end of last year. But the lingering drag from last year’s hikes in taxes for business will probably prevent it from growing by much more than 1.0% this year.” The maintained its benchmark interest rate at 3.75% earlier this month, but the tight 5-4 vote by the Monetary Policy Committee to do so, coupled with a cooling in inflation and subdued economic growth points to another interest rate cut in March. Source: Investing.com 2026-02-21 hellenicshippingnews... window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'}; (function(w, d, s) { function go(){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }; load('//connect.facebook.net/en/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk'); load('https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js', 'gplus1js'); load('//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js', 'tweetjs'); } if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener("load", go, false); } else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent("onload",go); } }(window, document, 'script')); tweet Share