High street suffers from surprise fall in sales volumes

The volume of sales on the high street during the last month were lower than a year ago, surprising retailers, according to the latest CBI Quarterly Distributive Trades Survey. Orders placed by retailers with suppliers also fell, as did employment.

Although 30% of retailers said that the volume of sales rose during the first two weeks in May, 48% said they fell, giving a balance of -18%. This was a much weaker result than expected by respondents (+17%), and was the lowest balance since March 2009 (-44%)... read more

CBI