{"id":44614,"date":"2025-10-24T11:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/24\/uk-retail-sales-unexpectedly-rise-0-5-in-september-boosting-economy\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T11:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:35:08","slug":"uk-retail-sales-unexpectedly-rise-0-5-in-september-boosting-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/24\/uk-retail-sales-unexpectedly-rise-0-5-in-september-boosting-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"UK retail sales unexpectedly rise 0.5% in September, boosting economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UK retail sales unexpectedly grew for a fourth consecutive month in September, a surprising show of resilience from the British consumer that provides a glimmer of hope for an economy that has recently shown signs of cooling.<\/p>\n

The volume of goods sold online and in stores climbed\u00a00.5%\u00a0month-on-month, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday. <\/p>\n

The figure was considerably better than the 0.4% drop that economists had been expecting and follows an upwardly revised\u00a00.6%\u00a0gain in August. The pound erased a small drop to trade steady after the data was released.<\/p>\n

Strong demand for non-food items drives growth<\/h2>\n

The retail sector held up despite the arrival of wet and cool weather after a scorching summer. <\/p>\n

According to the ONS, sales volumes have now hit their highest level since July 2022, with non-food sales climbing a strong\u00a00.9%\u00a0in the month. <\/p>\n

Sales in household goods stores rose sharply, while online retailers also enjoyed another positive month, with online jewelers in particular reporting strong demand for gold. <\/p>\n

Economists suggested that consumers may have rushed to buy jewellry after seeing reports of the precious metal’s surging price.<\/p>\n

A positive contribution to Q3 GDP, but a full revival is ‘some way off’<\/h2>\n

The strong performance of the retail sector is set to provide a tangible boost to the UK’s overall economic growth for the third quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cRetail spending made a positive contribution to GDP in Q3, the strongest since Q1 2024,\u201d Martin Beck, chief economist at WPI Strategy, told Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

He noted that with households still holding significant savings, there remains scope for a pick-up in spending if confidence continues to improve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for now, a full retail revival still looks some way off,\u201d\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n

The unexpectedly strong data complicates the picture for the Bank of England, which is set to make its next interest rate decision on November 6. <\/p>\n

A deteriorating jobs market and stuttering growth had recently prompted traders to increase their bets on a rate cut before the end of the year. <\/p>\n

However, with inflation remaining stubbornly high and the consumer now showing surprising strength, the case for immediate easing has been weakened.<\/p>\n

Consumers are undeterred by the prospect of tax hikes<\/h2>\n

Remarkably, the strong spending figures come at a time of growing speculation about painful tax hikes in Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves\u2019 upcoming budget on November 26. <\/p>\n

A separate report from GfK on Friday showed that its household confidence gauge actually edged up two points in October, matching its highest level of 2025. <\/p>\n

GfK\u2019s indicator for sentiment around buying big-ticket items also rose to its highest point since early 2022, a clear sign that, for now, the British consumer remains defiant in the face of economic headwinds.<\/p>\n

The post UK retail sales unexpectedly rise 0.5% in September, boosting economy<\/a> appeared first on Invezz<\/a><\/p>\n

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UK retail sales unexpectedly grew for a fourth consecutive month in September, a surprising show of resilience from the British consumer that provides a glimmer of hope for an economy that has recently shown signs of cooling. The volume of goods sold online and in stores climbed\u00a00.5%\u00a0month-on-month, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-investing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}