“Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — U.K. retail sales unexpectedly fell in January for a second consecutive month as cold weather kept consumers at home and incomes remained under pressure, hurting spending on food, household goods and auto fuel.
Sales including fuel fell 0.6 percent from December, when they dropped a revised 0.3 percent, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. The median forecast of 24 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 0.5 percent increase. From a year earlier, sales declined 0.6 percent.
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said this week that inflation may accelerate in the coming months, intensifying a squeeze on consumers that has curbed spending. With snowfall also likely to have disrupted construction last month, today’s data raise the possibility that the economy will shrink in the first quarter, according to Rob Wood, a London-based economist at Berenberg Bank….”
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