April saw a surge in retail sales as temperatures reached the highest levels in 100 years and consumers ignored concerns over falling living standards.
According to the Office for National Statistics, sales increased by 2.3 percent last month compared to the one percent growth predicted by analysts.
Last month’s sales were the biggest monthly rise since January 2016 and showed a significant improvement compared to the 1.4 percent fall in sales in March.
Richard Lim, the chief executive of the consultancy Retail Economics said: “The latest data showed shoppers continued to shrug off any Brexit and political uncertainty with retail sales beating even the most optimistic expectations,”
“Despite the surge in inflation and squeeze on households’ finances, consumers were out in force during the Easter break with the warm weather driving sales across the sector.”
Retail sales were 2.3 percent and sales at supermarkets were up by 1.3 percent.
Some analysts have warned that these statistics should be taken with a pinch of salt and does not mean that the consumer is in good health.
“The data often are volatile around this time of year, suggesting that the ONS’ adjustment methodology fails to adjust fully for the boost to spending over the holidays,” Samuel Tombs from Pantheon said.
“April’s surge in retail sales likely isn’t a turning point, given the outlook for falling real wages, modest employment growth and a tightening of the supply of unsecured credit.”
Alan Clarke, an economist at Scotiabank, also suggested a slowdown in coming months.
“With inflation likely to continue accelerating sharply, the headwinds facing the consumer will intensify, which in turn is likely to slow the pace of consumer spending later in the year. We, therefore, remain of the view that the pace of GDP growth has further downside into the end of the year,” he said.