Improved sales of food and drink helped Scottish retail sales return to growth last month.
New figures for the month of July released by the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) revealed that like-for-like sales were up by 0.2 per cent year-on-year, while total sales were up by 1.7 per cent on the same period in 2010.
But despite the slight improvement, the SRC said underlying trends remained unchanged and that consumer confidence in the country remained weak. Low wage growth and greater pressure on households' disposable income are continuing to put consumers off spending in areas where they don't have to.
David McCorquodale, head of retail for KPMG in Scotland, said: "After two months without growth, July's modest increase compared with the same month last year will come as some relief for Scottish retailers. But, given the level of inflation and the increase in the VAT rate, customers are actually buying fewer goods than a year ago."
Mr McCorquodale added that while few retailers are optimistic at the moment, many are expecting inflationary pressures to decrease towards the end of the year.
