{"id":6609,"date":"2022-06-29T10:12:21","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T09:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/06\/29\/news-in-review-61\/"},"modified":"2022-07-05T14:09:48","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T13:09:48","slug":"news-in-review-61","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/06\/29\/news-in-review-61\/","title":{"rendered":"News in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cBoth retailers and their\ncustomers are in for hard times ahead\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

UK retail\nsales contracted in May as consumers reduced their spending, according to data\nreleased by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last Friday. As prices\ncontinue to rise and the impact of inflation on household finances intensifies,\nretail sales volumes fell by 0.5% between April and May, marginally better than a 0.7%\nreduction forecast by a Reuters poll of economists. Primarily d<\/strong>riven by a decline in food sales, which\ndropped 1.6% in the month, supermarket sales fell by 1.5%, while sales of tobacco,\nalcohol and other drinks dropped by 4%.<\/strong> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Chief Executive of the British\nRetail Consortium (BRC) Helen Dickinson commented on the findings, \u201cHouseholds\nreined in spending as the cost-of-living crunch continued to squeeze consumer\ndemand. Many customers are buying down, particularly with food, choosing\nvalue-range items where they might previously have bought premium goods.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

She continued, \u201cHigh-value items, such as furniture and white goods, were also impacted as shoppers reconsidered major purchases during this difficult time. Higher operational and input costs have filtered through to prices, meaning both retailers and their customers are in for hard times ahead.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Non-food store sales were unchanged\nin May, while a 2.2% increase in clothing sales in the month was offset by a\n2.3% decline in household goods. Interestingly, fuel sales increased by\n1.1% in May; Heather\nBovill, Deputy Director for Surveys and Economic indicators at ONS, partially\nattributes this to more hybrid working and a decline in those working exclusively\nfrom home, commenting, “More workers returning to the office may have\ncontributed to increased fuel sales this month, while shoppers buying outfits\nfor summer holidays helped boost clothing sales.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

In May, the proportion of online sales reduced (26.6% in\nMay 2022 versus 27.1% in April) but remains substantially higher than the 19.7%\nrecorded in February 2020 prior to the pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Get spending your old <\/strong>bank notes!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

With UK\nbank notes worth \u00a314bn set to become invalid from 30 September,\nlast week marked the 100-day countdown, prompting the Bank of England (BoE) to\nissue a reminder. Old-style paper \u00a320 and \u00a350 notes will no longer be\nconsidered legal tender or accepted in stores. The BoE estimates there is over \u00a36bn\nin paper \u00a320 notes and \u00a38bn in old \u00a350 notes still in circulation <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

The BoE\u2019s Chief Cashier Sarah John commented on the\nimpending deadline, \u201cChanging our banknotes from paper to polymer over\nrecent years has been an important development, because it makes them more\ndifficult to counterfeit, and means they are more durable. The majority of\npaper banknotes have now been taken out of circulation, but a significant\nnumber remain in the economy, so we\u2019re asking you to check if you have any at home.\nFor the next 100 days, these can still be used or deposited at your bank in the\nnormal way.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n


\nTriple lock commitment\nreiterated<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Last week the\ngovernment reiterated its commitment to apply the State Pension triple lock next\nyear, when questioned about plans for additional measures to help pensioners\ndeal with inflationary pressures. In a written response, Simon Clarke,\nChief Secretary to the Treasury <\/strong>confirmed \u2018Next year, the triple\nlock will apply for the State Pension. Subject to the Secretary of State\u2019s\nreview, pensions and other benefits will be uprated by this September\u2019s CPI\nwhich, on current forecasts, is likely to be significantly higher than the forecast\ninflation rate for 2023\/24.\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

The triple lock commits the government to raise the State Pension every\ntax year by the higher of 2.5%, average wage growth, or inflation, effectively\nprotecting pensions from losing value due to inflation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

G7 Summit <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

On Tuesday,\nthe three-day G7 summit in Germany ended with Prime Minister Boris\nJohnson and fellow world leaders confirming that they would explore further\nmeasures, including\npossible caps on the price of oil and gas, to prevent Russia profiting from its\n\u2018war of aggression\u2019<\/em> against Ukraine. Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor\nand G7 Chair, made the vow at a closing press conference in which he said the\ngroup was united and unbreakable, adding, \u201cIt is important to stand together\nfor this over the long distance, which will certainly be necessary.\u201d<\/em> In addition to pledging support for Ukraine, the summit had two\nfurther main aims \u2013 a joint effort to end world hunger and a renewed\ncommitment to combating climate change. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Here\nto help<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Financial\nadvice is key, so please do not hesitate to get in contact with any questions\nor concerns you may have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

The value of investments can go down as well as\nup and you may not get back the full amount you invested. The past is not a\nguide to future performance and past performance may not necessarily be\nrepeated.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

All details are\ncorrect at time of writing (29 June 2022)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBoth retailers and their customers are in for hard times ahead\u201d UK retail sales contracted in May as consumers reduced their spending, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last Friday. As prices continue to rise and the impact of inflation on household finances intensifies, retail sales volumes fell by 0.5% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":161483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,112],"tags":[],"hd_content_source":[116],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6611,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions\/6611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6609"},{"taxonomy":"hd_content_source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hd_content_source?post=6609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}