Economic & Retail Update - Q2 2018

Economic & Retail Update - Q2 2018

Summary

"Economic & Retail Update - Q2 2018", report offers comprehensive insight and analysis of the UK economy and retail environment (including forecasts up to 2023). It provides in-depth analysis of the following: the key issues regarding the UK economy (including CPI, unemployment rate and etc.), and the key issues regarding the UK retail market (including online, offline and non-food markets).

The UK’s GDP performance continued to soften in Q1 2018, falling to 1.2% growth. This is the lowest level of quarterly growth since Q2 2012 and highlights the detrimental effect that higher prices have had in curbing a core area of GDP: consumption.

Scope

- The dominance of rapidly growing online pureplays has accelerated the value of the online market within total retail. However, while the online market is set to grow by 33.1% over the next five years, this is less than the 54.0% growth achieved between 2013 and 2018.
- Inflation has remained consistently above the 2% target since Q1 2017, a result of increased cost prices from a weaker currency. Throughout 2017, increased costs continued to push up the price of retail goods, however, while CPI is forecast to remain above target throughout 2018, the steps to recovery have now begun.
- Total retail sales increased by 2.1% in 2017, however, this was driven by high inflation of 1.9%. While volumes remained flat and did not dip into negative territory, this was a significant reduction in volume growth compared to previous years as consumer confidence plummeted and consumers had to spend more of their income on essential items.

Reasons to buy

- This report helps executives build proactive, profitable growth strategies by offering comprehensive, relevant analysis of key economic indicators and retail sectors.
- The broad but detailed perspective will help manufacturers and retailers understand and succeed in the challenging retail market.
- Discover which segments of the market are forecast to prosper out to 2023, and how alterations in economic policy will impact the retail market's future prospects.
- Utilise our online forecasts to 2023 to consider how to exploit your online potential and decide how best to target consumers via the channel.