Why Britain’s shopping spree will come at a cost

One should never trust economic statistics too much.

They have a nasty tendency to be endlessly revised, ensuring that we never really get a settled view of how the economy is doing.

But the latest retail sales numbers, if taken at face value, are unusually noteworthy.



The year-on-year growth rate hit a remarkable 6pc in May, up from 5.2pc in April, an astonishing, unsustainable rate which must make us all question what is actually happening to the UK economy right now.

The Office for National Statistics is telling us that sales volumes rose 0.9pc in May, while April’s surge was upped to 1.9pc from 1.3pc.

These are all very, very strong numbers: the amount spent in shops appears to be growing much faster than the rest of the economy, gobbling up a greater share of GDP.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/06/16/why-britains-shopping-spree-will-come-at-a-cost/