January retail sales on Britain's high streets were at their worst in 15 years - not a great start! In December, despite freezing weather shoppers had been out shopping in droves - why did they stop in January?
Well, for one VAT returned to 17.5% after having been at 15% for a long while. Another factor is, believe it or not, the continuing cold weather and snow - it makes people want to stay at home.
It's not all bad news though - online shopping is as healthy as ever and continues to gain strength. Food sales are also not doing too badly.
Meanwhile currency speculators are still nervous around the sterling - despite a cautious edge up this morning against the US dollar - at 0.1% it wasn't a huge rise but nevertheless better than Monday's 8 1/2 month lows.
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