High street hopes of a bumper Christmas have been dashed by the arrival in the UK of the Omicron variant, the latest snapshot of consumer activity has confirmed.
The CBI’s monthly distributive trades survey reported a marked slowdown in activity after the government’s decision to trigger plan B measures as part of its response to the pandemic.
The employers’ lobby group said sales growth had eased to its lowest since the spring, confounding expectations among retailers that they would build on November’s strong performance.
While 44% of retailers said business was up on a year ago, 36% said it was down. The gap between the two – 8 percentage points – compared with +39 points in November.
The CBI said more than half of firms that responded
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