LONDON (Reuters) – British retail sales resumed their post-lockdown recovery in June after a surprise fall in May, as soccer fans watching the Euro 2020 tournament loaded up on food and drink to enjoy at home, Britain’s statistics agency said.
Retail sales rose by 0.5% in June from May, the Office for National Statistics said.
A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a 0.4% month-on-month increase in retail sales volumes in June.
Sales were up by 9.5% compared with their pre-coronavirus pandemic February 2020 levels, the Office for National Statistics said.
Food stores, which suffered the biggest hit in spending in May as consumers returned to restaurants and bars, drove the increase in June with volumes rising by 4.2%, helped by the start of the Euro 2020 soccer tournament, the ONS said.
This was the biggest monthly rise since March 2020.
Face-to-face retail also got a boost from the lifting of restrictions that shut non-essential retailers until mid-May.
The ONS said online sales made up the lowest share of retail spending since March 2020 at the start of the pandemic, dropping to 26.7% in June from 28.4% in May.
(Reporting by David Milliken and William Schomberg)
