{"id":114043,"date":"2025-04-25T11:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T07:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/?p=114043"},"modified":"2025-04-25T11:58:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T07:58:14","slug":"u-k-retail-sales-defy-expectations-with-march-rise-despite-trump-tariff-fallout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/u-k-retail-sales-defy-expectations-with-march-rise-despite-trump-tariff-fallout\/04\/25\/market-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"U.K. Retail Sales Defy Expectations with March Rise, Despite Trump Tariff Fallout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>U.K. <strong>retail sales unexpectedly rose in March<\/strong>, surprising economists and offering a rare bright spot amid growing concerns over the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s aggressive trade policy on global sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to <strong>data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS)<\/strong> released Friday:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Retail sales <strong>rose 0.4% month-on-month<\/strong> in March (vs. -0.3% expected), though slower than February\u2019s upwardly revised <strong>0.7%<\/strong> gain.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>On an annual basis, sales <strong>climbed 2.6%<\/strong>, surpassing the expected 1.8% and February\u2019s 2.2% growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The figures offer reassurance about consumer resilience, even as <strong>sentiment has deteriorated<\/strong> sharply. A <strong>British Retail Consortium (BRC)<\/strong> survey released Thursday showed its <strong>consumer sentiment index<\/strong> fell to <strong>-48 in April<\/strong>, the lowest in over a year, from -35 in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The drop in sentiment followed the <strong>early April announcement of sweeping U.S. tariffs<\/strong>, including minimum 10% levies on most major trading partners \u2014 measures that have rattled global markets and raised fears of a wider economic slowdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tariffs Add Pressure to U.K. Policymakers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>U.K. Chancellor <strong>Rachel Reeves<\/strong> is set to meet <strong>U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent<\/strong> later today to discuss possible exemptions or adjustments to the U.S. tariffs, as the U.K. seeks to limit the economic damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At its March meeting, the <strong>Bank of England<\/strong> held its key <strong>interest rate at 4.5%<\/strong>, citing continued inflation pressures. But with a weakening outlook, markets are now <strong>pricing in a rate cut in May<\/strong>, particularly after the <strong>IMF forecast U.K. inflation to remain the highest<\/strong> among advanced economies this year at <strong>3.1%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>IMF also downgraded the U.K.\u2019s 2025 growth forecast to 1.1%<\/strong> from 1.6%, blaming the <strong>global fallout from U.S. trade tariffs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>The unexpected strength in retail sales offers <strong>short-term relief<\/strong>, but the broader economic outlook remains <strong>fragile<\/strong>. With <strong>consumer confidence plunging<\/strong> and <strong>external risks escalating<\/strong>, the Bank of England faces increased pressure to <strong>ease policy<\/strong> in the coming months. All eyes are now on <strong>U.S.-U.K. trade talks<\/strong> and upcoming central bank guidance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.K. retail sales unexpectedly rose in March, surprising economists and offering a rare bright spot amid growing concerns over the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s aggressive trade policy on global sentiment. According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released Friday: Retail sales rose 0.4% month-on-month in March (vs. -0.3% expected), though &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":33011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[7049,6994,6835],"class_list":["post-114043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-market-updates","tag-retail","tag-sales","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114044,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114043\/revisions\/114044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}