UK retail sales fall more than forecast amid snow chaos

Bloomberg

UK retail sales plunged in March as snow and freezing temperatures kept consumers indoors and disrupted deliveries of stock.
The data comes as a fresh blow to the British high street after a year of consumer pullback in the face of rising prices and sluggish wage growth. While pay and inflation data this week show tentative signs that the squeeze may be starting to ease, the weather disruptions have added to the problems facing big-name retailers such as department store Debenhams, which issued a profit warning Thursday amid weaker demand for discretionary items.
The volume of goods sold in stores and online declined 1.2 percent, double the drop predicted by economists, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
The figures round off a week of weaker-than-expected reports that saw traders pare back bets on the pace on Bank of England tightening, with two rate increases this year seeming increasingly unlikely. Even so, policy makers will probably look through the weather-impacted retail data, according to Jean Boivin, head of economic and market research at BlackRock Inc.’s Investment Institute. “There are temporary factors at play,” he said.
Travel chaos paralysed Britain from late February when the Beast from the East and then Storm Emma brought sub-zero temperatures and blizzard-like conditions in the UK.