Shopkeepers in the Capital enjoyed a bumper month in May as sales went up a massive 14%, new figures show.
Data from the London Retail Consortium (LRC) show that sales on a ‘like for like’ basis grew well last month, after falling at the same time last year.
Shoppers were attracted into the London’s shops by warmer weather and by several special sales events at large stores.
Also, The World Cup has inspired the sale of large TVs as fans prepared for matches.
Other high priced goods sold well as retailers pull in customers with discounted prices.
Once again London sales shops finished ahead of the rest of the UK as they continue to recover from last July’s bombings.
Sales in London are now over 10% higher than they were three months ago and May surpassed April.
Kevin Hawkins, LRC director, said: “These are very encouraging results – helped by a strong recovery in tourism, anticipation of the World Cup and regular, widespread discounting.
“It is particularly reassuring that customer footfall continued to increase compared with a year ago.
“We hope that the Bank does nothing to blunt this recovery by raising interest rates next month.”
© Crimson Business Ltd 2006
