UK retail sales plunge 19% in April due to coronavirus lockdown – BRC

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) survey showed on Wednesday, the UK consumer spending fell by 20% in April, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic led social and economic lockdown.

Key findings

“The BRC members reported a 19.1% drop in total sales last month compared with April last year, the biggest fall since it began its monthly index in 1995. 

Over the three months to April, in-store sales of non-food items plunged by 36.0% while food sales over the period rose by 6.0% as consumers stocked up on essentials for the government’s coronavirus shutdown.

By contrast, online non-food sales leapt by nearly 60% in April to account for more than two-thirds of non-food spending.”

Separately, “Barclaycard, part of Barclays Bank said credit and debit card spending plunged by 36.5% compared with a year earlier as spending on travel, pubs and restaurants collapsed,” as cited by Reuters.

Market reaction

GBP/USD is consolidating the bounce from three-week lows of 1.2251 ahead of the critical UK data releases. The spot, currently, trades at 1.2278, up 0.15% on the day.