UK: Upside surprise in retail sales - TDS

Analysts at TD Securities, notes that the UK retail sales surprised significantly to the upside in November, rising 1.4% m/m largely on the back of Black Friday sales.

Key Quotes

“Gains were broad-based across durable goods categories, with the Household Goods sector rising over 5% m/m. Today's figure helps unwind some of the weakness seen in the recent months, but does raise questions about how much of this gain was truly sales-driven and how much was driven by difficulties with the ONS seasonal adjustment to the relatively new (in the UK at least) Black Friday phenomenon. If the latter, it's possible that December retail sales could disappoint significantly, mirroring the pattern seen last year (strong Nov, weak Dec).”