CBI survey of retailers comes before Black Friday discounting period, which is likely to drive sales furtherHigh street sales are staging a recovery after a sharp slowdown last month, overcoming the steepest growth in selling prices in almost 25 years. While the study comes before the key Christmas shopping period, the early indications are likely to cheer the industry. The closing date for the survey was Tuesday 14 November, well before the beginning of the Black Friday discounting period, which is expected to help drive sales further. Rain Newton-Smith, the chief economist at the CBI, said: “Our high streets are not out of the woods. That helped drive the slightly stronger-than-expected growth in the economy of 0.4% in the third quarter, confirmed by the ONS on Thursday.

Source: The Guardian November 23, 2017 13:14 UTC