(Aliance News) - Retail sales in the UK performed better than expected in September, data published by the Office for National Statistics showed Friday.

Retail sales climbed 0.3% monthly in September, slowed from 1.0% in August but beating FXStreet-cited expectations of a 0.3% contraction.

The ONS said: ‘The strongest sub-sector growth was from other non-food stores, which rose by 5.5% over the month to September 2024. Within ’other non-food’, computer and telecommunications retailers had the strongest contribution to growth.

‘Partly offsetting this, supermarkets sales volumes fell by 2.4% during the month to September 2024, leading to the largest month-on-month fall for food stores this year.’

Notably, retail sales rose 3.9% on-year in September, the fastest annual rise since February 2022, and beating growth of around 2.3% in August. September’s on-year growth was also comfortably ahead of expectations of a 3.2% climb.

Sales volumes were still 0.2% lower than in pre-pandemic February 2020.

Further, sales volumes in September were at their highest index levels since July 2022, the ONS noted.

Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.