{"id":7230,"date":"2022-07-27T11:32:26","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T10:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/07\/27\/news-in-review-65\/"},"modified":"2022-07-27T12:27:57","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T11:27:57","slug":"news-in-review-65","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2022\/07\/27\/news-in-review-65\/","title":{"rendered":"News in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cFood sales\npicked up due to the Jubilee celebrations, but this was the only sector to\nreport an increase\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Retail sales edged lower\nlast month as people reduced their fuel consumption, while households continue\nto struggle with fast rising prices. According to the most recent Office for\nNational Statistics (ONS) data released last Friday, retail sales volumes fell\nby a smaller-than-expected 0.1% in June; economists surveyed in a Reuters poll had\nwidely expected a 0.3% monthly decline. This follows a fall of 0.8% in May. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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In the 12 months to June, UK\ninflation leapt to 9.4% from 9.1% in May, with petrol prices soaring by 18.1p\nper litre in the month, according to ONS. Average petrol prices reached 184p\nper litre in June, the highest since records began in 1990 and up from 129.7p one\nyear earlier, the largest monthly rise on record. The price of food continues\nto climb, with eggs, milk and cheese seeing the largest rises in June.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Headline retail statistics for June revealed:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n
  • Fuel sales volumes reduced by 4.3% with retailers indicating\nthe decline was linked to record-high prices<\/strong><\/li>
  • Food sales volumes increased by 3.1% with\nretailers confirming that the rise was due to the Queen\u2019s Platinum Jubilee\ncelebrations<\/li>
  • Online retail sales declined to 25.3%, its\nlowest proportion since March 2020 (22.8%), continuing a downward trend since\nFebruary 2021 (37.4%) peak.<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n
    \n

    Deputy Director for Surveys\nand Economic Indicators at ONS, Heather Bovill, commented on the findings, \u201cAfter\ntaking account of rising prices, retail sales fell slightly in June and\nalthough they remain above their pre-pandemic level, the broader trend is one\nof decline.\u201d<\/em> She continued, \u201cAfter a fall in May, food sales picked up\ndue to the Jubilee celebrations, but this was the only sector to report an\nincrease. Fuel sales fell back considerably with retailers reporting the record\nhigh prices at the pump hitting sales.\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

    \n

    Surge in sunscreen\nand ice cream sales<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

    \n

    As the intense heat took hold last week, sales\nof sunscreen and ice cream soared according to data from Kantar. With the Met Office predicting extreme temperatures across much\nof the UK, households wisely stocked up on summer essentials to beat the heat. The\nlast time the UK experienced a similar heatwave in July 2019, sales of fans,\npaddling pools and reusable water bottles shot up, 107%, 169% and 17%\nrespectively, with almost \u00a311m extra being spent during\nthe hottest week on those three items. Fraser McKevitt Head of Retail and Consumer\nInsight at Kantar commented, “We expect to see similar if not even\nbigger numbers this time around,” <\/em>but he did caution that price rises will\nlead people to be “feeling the pinch during our first restriction-free\nsummer since 2019.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

    \n

    ECB\nrate hike \u2013 more on the cards<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

    \n

    Last week, the European Central Bank (ECB) raised\nits key interest rate by 50 basis points to 0.0%, with plans for further rises\non the cards this year, as worries about inflation surpassed growth\nconcerns.\nIn justifying the decision to increase rates, Christine Lagarde ECB President\ncommented, “Economic activity [in the eurozone] is slowing. Russia’s\nunjustified aggression towards Ukraine is an ongoing drag on growth. We expect\ninflation to remain undesirably high for some time owing to continued pressure\nfrom energy and food prices and pipeline pressures in the pricing chain.”<\/em>\nThe ECB has signalled that it will take a “meeting-by-meeting”<\/em>\napproach to raising rates, but that further rate hikes “will be\nappropriate.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

    \n

    Markets<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

    \n

    Markets remained stable at the end\nof last week after the ECB raised interest rates for the first time since 2011. The FTSE 100\nended the week with its highest Friday close for six weeks. This week, European\nstock markets have been mixed on the news that Gazprom plans a drastic cut in gas\ndeliveries to the bloc because of a turbine problem \u2013 the daily supply will be\nabout 20% of the pipeline\u2019s capacity. Wall Street kicked off the week on a\npromising note, having hit six-week highs last week. Weakness in the tech\nsector, was offset by an energy upturn, ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting\nlater this week. After the IMF announced a cut in the UK\u2019s 2022 GDP target,\nfrom 3.7% in April to 3.2%, the FTSE 100 ended Tuesday down just 0.02 points\nat 7,306.28.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

    \n

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

    \n

    Financial advice is key, so please\ndo not hesitate to get in contact with any questions or concerns you may have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

    \n

    The\nvalue of investments can go down as well as up and you may not get back the\nfull amount you invested. The past is not a guide to future performance and\npast performance may not necessarily be repeated.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

    \n

    All details are\ncorrect at time of writing (27 July 2022)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cFood sales picked up due to the Jubilee celebrations, but this was the only sector to report an increase\u201d Retail sales edged lower last month as people reduced their fuel consumption, while households continue to struggle with fast rising prices. According to the most recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) data released last Friday, retail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7232,"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\/7230"}],"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=7230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7233,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230\/revisions\/7233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7230"},{"taxonomy":"hd_content_source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hd_content_source?post=7230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}