Contractionary Fiscal Contraction Watch
The Financial Times:
Retailers suffer sharp fall in spending. By Norma Cohen, Economics Correspondent Published: April 11 2011 23:56 | Last updated: April 11 2011 23:56:
Cash-strapped households produced the most severe cut in high street spending in 16 years in March, a survey shows, while another points to a slowdown in the housing market, with a growing divide between London and the regions.
The capital has emerged as the only part of the country enjoying rising house prices, with some areas in the North, Northern Ireland and Wales reporting sharp declines, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
The British Retail Consortium’s monthly survey for March showed that total sales fell 1.9 per cent from a year earlier and, although 2010 sales were bolstered by an unusually early Easter holiday, the change of holiday timing only accounts for a portion of the decline.
"This is the worst drop in total sales since we first collected these figures in 1995,” said Stephen Robertson, BRC director-general. “This year’s later Easter is a factor but this fall goes way beyond anything that can be explained by that alone.”
