High street sales show third rise

Mar 13 2013

Sales on Scotland's high streets have increased for the third month in a row, new figures have revealed.

Total sales in February were 0.7% up on the same month last year, with retail chiefs describing the performance as "encouraging".

But they also warned the trading environment for retailers was still "fragile", with the sales growth in Scotland lagging behind that for the UK as a whole.

Across the UK, total sales were up by 4.4% in February while like-for-like sales - which strip out factors such as new store openings - were 2.7% higher than the same month last year.

In Scotland, like-for-like sales in February were 0.1% lower than they were 12 months ago, the latest Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) KPMG retail sales monitor revealed.

While total sales rose by 0.7%, when shop price inflation was taken into consideration they had fallen by 0.3% in real terms.

Total food sales were up 2% on February last year. Overall non-food sales were down 0.5% when compared to 12 months ago - but apart from Christmas, this was the strongest performance since March last year.

SRC head of policy David Martin said: "This is an encouraging result, with February being the third consecutive month of Scottish sales growth and the best three-month average in nearly two years.

"However, total sales didn't measure up well against those in January and in real terms were down 0.3%.

"This reminds us that the economy and trading environment remains fragile."