UK Retail Sales Surge in Apr On Reopening

UK APR RETAIL SALES +9.2% M/M; +42.4% Y/Y

UK APR RETAIL SALES EX-FUEL +9.0% M/M; +37.7% Y/Y

UK MAR TOTAL SALES REVISED DOWN TO +5.1% M/M

UK APR RETAIL SALES DEFLATOR +1.0% Y/Y; EX-FUEL +0.4% Y/Y

• UK retail sales surged by 9.2% in April, coming stronger than markets expected (Median: 4.8%). The reopening of non-essential businesses provided a significant boost to sales at the beginning of Q2.
• Retail sales are now 10.6% higher than in Feb 2020, reflecting the easing of lockdown restrictions.
• Annual sales jumped to 42.4%, better than expected (BBG: 36.8%) and mainly driven by base effects as April 2020 was the first full month of lockdown.
• Apr's increase was broad-based with every category recording m/m increases, except for food stores where sales eased by 0.9%.
• Clothing and footwear saw the largest m/m gain, up 69.4%, followed by other stores where sales grew by 25.3% in Apr.
• The proportion of online sales fell in all retail sectors, leading to a fall of the total proportion to 30.0% y/y in Apr, down from 34.7% in Mar.
• While internet sales (value) fell 5.6% on a monthly basis, annual internet sales decelerated to 31.9%, almost half the rate from Mar (61.7%).