Black Friday discounts have been found to have helped boost UK sales last month, with customers spending online and in department stores.
Official figures have shown that retail sales were up by 1.7% from previous month, beating Reuters’ poll of economists’ perdition of 0.5%.
The amount of money spent this year has also seen an increase by 1.4%; Economists have said that the UK economy of this year will be ending on a strong point.
However, there has been a warning that Christmas could still be tough for retailers and that November’s sale spend will come at December’s expense.
Ian Gilmartin, head of retail and wholesale at Barclays said: “Retailers will be pleased with the sales growth achieved in November, but analysts and retailers should really wait until the Christmas season has run its course before drawing any firm conclusions.“
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has highlighted the role of discounts in the latest sales increase. Melanie Richard, ONS head of retail sales said: “A continued fall in prices as well as promotions in the run up to Christmas have helped to boost the amount shoppers bought in November, both on the high street and online, with the biggest increases coming from department stores and household goods retailers.”
Despite the government plans to focus on manufacturing and exports rather than relying on consumers, spending has been the main drive of economic growth this year. Drop in food and petrol prices has seen retail and luxury sales increase by 14%.