U.K. Retail Sales Rebound In July

(RTTNews) - U.K. retail sales rebounded in July as food and non-food store sales increased from June, the Office for National Statistics showed Thursday.

Retail sales volume including automotive fuel climbed 1.4 percent month-on-month in July, reversing a 0.9 percent fall in June. Sales were expected gain only 0.1 percent.

Likewise, excluding auto fuel, retail sales volume advanced 1.5 percent after decreasing 0.9 percent in the prior month. This was much faster than the expected 0.3 percent increase.

On a yearly basis, growth in overall retail sales improved to 5.9 percent in July from 4.3 percent. Sales excluding auto fuel advanced 5.4 percent, faster than the 3.9 percent rise in June.

Economists had forecast overall sales volume to grow 4.2 percent and sales excluding auto fuel to rise 3.9 percent.