October sales ‘best in seven years’

The UK economic community has been boosted this week with news that unemployment rises are at their smallest since May last year.

According to this BBC report, while unemployment rose in the three months to September by 30,000, the increase was the smallest in over 17 months for the UK. Official unemployment figures for the UK now stand at 2.46 million in the same period.

Meanwhile according to the latest British Retail Consortium and KPMG figures, UK retail sale values rose 3.8 per cent compared like-for-like with October 2008.

The rise contrasts with October 2008, where sales had fallen 2.2 per cent, mirroring poor consumer confidence at the time.