UK Retail Sales Fall by 0.3% in December

UK Retail Sales Drop 0.3% in December, Defying Expectations

By Andy Bruce and Suban Abdulla

LONDON (Reuters) -British retail sales fell unexpectedly in December, according to official data on Friday that added to a run of downbeat economic indicators that are likely to further boost expectations for a Bank of England interest rate cut next month.

Retail sales, adjusted for the inclusion of the Black Friday sales at the start of the month, fell by 0.3% in month-on-month terms in December after a downwardly revised 0.1% expansion in November, the Office for National Statistics said.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a monthly increase of 0.4% in sales volumes from November.

"This was driven by a very poor month for food sales, which sank to their lowest level since 2013, with supermarkets particularly affected," ONS senior statistician Hannah Finselbach said.

Sterling fell by around a quarter of a cent against the U.S. dollar after the data, tipping below $1.22.

Retail sales for the fourth quarter as a whole fell by 0.8%, something the ONS said was likely to drag on economic growth in the fourth quarter by around 0.04 percentage points.

(Reporting by Suban Abdulla and Andy Bruce; editing by William James)