U.K. Retail Sales Unexpectedly Rise After Price Cuts

U.K. retail sales unexpectedly rose in January as stores attracted shoppers with price cuts, overcoming the effects of job losses and the deepening recession.

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Sales climbed 0.7 percent after increasing 1.7 percent in December, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. Economists predicted a 0.1 percent drop, according to the median of 28 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. On the year, sales rose 3.6 percent. The Bank of England is fighting to protect Britain from the threat of a decade-long depression similar to that suffered by Japan in the 1990s, Deputy Governor John Gieve said late yesterday...more

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