A general view shows shoppers on the high street in Scunthorpe, northeast England, May 22 2019. Picture: LINDSEY PARMABY / AFP
During the three months to April, sales rose 1.8%, the fastest growth by this measure since August 2018.Britain was originally due to leave the EU on March 29 but the deadline has been pushed back to October 31 as Prime Minister Theresa May failed to break an impasse in parliament on the terms of Brexit. May said on Friday she will resign as leader of the ruling Conservative Party on June 7, paving the way for a new prime minister to try taking Britain out of the EU.
Samuel Tombs, an economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics, warned against reading too much into the CBI’s figures, which were based on a small number of retailers.