Retail sales boosted by sunny weather and football in July

Sunny weather and the women’s Euro football tournament helped to lift retail sales in July, according to the latest official figures.

Retail sales volumes rose by 0.6% in July, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which was higher than analysts’ forecasts.

The release of the figures had been delayed by two weeks over concerns about the quality of the data.

The ONS has come under fire recently over the reliability of some of its statistics.

While sales volumes in July rose, sales in the three months to July were down 0.6% when compared with the previous three months.

“Supermarkets, sports shops and household goods stores had a strong start to the year, but spending there has fallen since March,” said the ONS’s director general of economic statistics, James Benford.

However, he added this was partially offset by strong sales online and at clothing and footwear stores.

Mr Benford apologised for errors in past data, and said the ONS had “improvement plans” in place.

The ONS had delayed the latest retail sales figures after it discovered a problem with its data, which meant that seasonal adjustments had not been made properly.

The latest release from the ONS revises most of the retail sales data for the past year.

“The new figures published today show a similar overall pattern of three-month on three-month growth, but with less volatile month-on-month changes,” Mr Benford said.

ONS statistics are used in deciding government policy which affects millions, and are used by the Bank of England to make key financial decisions.

The ONS said online retailers and clothing stores saw strong sales growth in July, which retailers put down to new products, the hot weather, and an increase resulting from the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 tournament.

However, Paul Dales from Capital Economics warned that both these factors were boosts that “won’t be repeated”.

Dr Kris Hamer from the British Retail Consortium said July was a “good month for retail sales, as the warm, sunny weather and packed sporting schedule in the first half of the month got people spending”.

“Unfortunately, this level of sales growth makes little dent on the £7bn of new costs that retailers are having to shoulder following last year’s Budget.”