High street spending remained subdued this month as the housing slowdown tightened its grip on consumer confidence, a survey indicated.

Channel 4 News – 28 March 2008

Sales of “big ticket” household goods such as washing machines and fridges were sharply lower, although the CBI’s latest distributive trades survey still showed that a balance of 1% of firms achieved a rise in year-on-year sales volumes.

This was up from the minus 3% balance reported last month – the first negative figure for more than a year – but well down on the long term average of plus 17%. And the underlying trend weakened, with a balance of plus 1% of retailers reporting sales up year-on-year during the three months to March.

The CBI survey has recently been gloomier than the official measure of retail sales, which last week showed a 1% hike in retail sales during February.

However, economist Vicky Redwood of Capital Economics said the CBI survey pointed to “very sluggish high street spending growth” – full article