Retail sales in the U.K. rebounded during January to post the best month in almost a year as weather improved, although the housing market was not able to reverse slumping home prices, according to The Daily Telegraph. On Tuesday, the British Retail Consortium reported that retail sales rose 2.3% year-over-year in January, which is the best figure since March 2010 and represents a big jump from the 0.3% annual improvement posted the month before. The strong figure was boosted by a surge in sales before the value-added tax increase on Jan. 4.
Meanwhile, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said that the portion of real-estate agents reporting increasing home prices was 31% lower than the portion reporting decreasing prices, adds Bloomberg. However, the reading of -31 for the survey’s gauge of home prices marks the highest level in six months and far outpaced economists expectations for a miniscule improvement to -38 after seeing -39 in December. The gauge of sales in the previous three months dropped to 14.6 in January from 15.2 the month before, which is the lowest level since June 2009.
Click here to read the story on retail sales from The Daily Telegraph.