LONDON (Reuters) – British retail sales bounced back weakly in December as shops in England emerged from November’s four-week lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19, while public borrowing this financial year hit a fresh record high.
Retail sales volumes rose 0.3% in December versus economist expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.2% increase, leaving them 2.9% higher than a year earlier, official figures showed on Friday.
Public sector borrowing for December came in at 34.1 billion pounds ($46.65 billion), slightly above economists’ forecasts of 32.1 billion pounds, taking borrowing since the start of the financial year in April to 270.8 billion pounds.
($1 = 0.7310 pounds)
(Reporting by David Milliken and Andy Bruce, Editing by Paul Sandle)
