The festive shopping season has begun at a sluggish pace, with consumers curbing food spending and holding off for the Black Friday and Christmas sales, two surveys showed.
Figures from Barclays, the bank, showed that card spending dropped by 0.5 per cent on an annual basis in November, the first drop since July and well below the latest inflation rate of 2.3 per cent, meaning that sales fell even deeper in real terms.
Separately, the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the industry lobby group, and KPMG, the consultancy, said that retail sales slid by 3.3 per cent last month, down from growth of 0.6 per cent in October.
The figures are likely to cause alarm among retailers, who rely on the seasonal boost in household spending