Business News Round Up (19/01/2024)
UK retail sales suffer sharpest monthly drop since the pandemic
UK retail sales fell more than expected in December, suffering the sharpest monthly drop since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Office for National Statistics. Retail sales volumes fell 3.2% between November and December, following a 1.4% rise in the previous month. This came against expectations by economists polled by Reuters of just a 0.5% point fall, and was the largest monthly decline since January 2021, when coronavirus restrictions affected sales. Non-food store sales volumes fell by 3.9% last month, following a 2.7% increase in November when Black Friday discounts increased sales. “Food stores performed very poorly, with their steepest fall since May 2021 as early Christmas shopping led to slow December sales,” said Heather Bovill, deputy director at the ONS. Online retailers sales volumes dropped by 2.1%, following a fall of 1.1% in November, while automotive sales volumes declined by 1.9% following a rise of 0.8% the month prior.
https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/news/4165491/uk-retail-sales-suffer-sharpest-monthly-drop-pandemic
SCC: Scottish economy is stuck in shadow of low growth
Scotland’s economy is “stuck in a low growth cycle”, according to the latest Scottish Chambers of Commerce Economic Indicator. The indicator has revealed that concern over inflation has fallen to 52% for this quarter – compared to 75% in the last quarter – the lowest that concern from inflation has been in all of 2023. 52% is still 20 percentage points higher than the 32% recorded pre-inflation crisis in Q1 2021. At the same time, investment is still flatlining. While on balance, more firms continue to report increases in investment than falls, over half of firms continue to report no changes to both total (55%) and training (54%) investment. Concern over interest rates was reported by half of firms in the last quarter, that has now fallen by 10 percentage points to 40% for this quarter but is still significantly higher than the 15% recorded in Q1 2021 pre-inflation crisis.
https://www.scottishfinancialnews.com/articles/scc-scottish-economy-stuck-in-shadow-of-low-growth
UK needs to ramp up green skills training
The UK needs to ramp up green skills training or risks stalling the green transition, new research supported by Iberdrola has found. According to Green Skills Outlook, produced by Economist Impact for Scottish Power’s parent company, a majority (71%) of business leaders agree green skills will be the most important driver, yet just 51% are implementing or planning to implement green skills programmes for their workforce. Meanwhile, almost two thirds (63%) think that the green transition will create more jobs than it eliminates, with three quarters (74%) saying that the jobs it creates will be higher quality for workers. Green Skills Outlook explores the impact of the green transition in nine labour markets globally, including the UK. It looks at four sectors of the economy that will play a central role in the green transition: IT and Technology, Construction and Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics and Energy and Utilities.
https://renews.biz/90672/uk-needs-to-ramp-up-green-skills-training/
Scottish hotels perform better than expected in November
Scottish hotels saw a decrease in room rates, occupancy, revenue per available room (REVPAR) and gross operating profits during November. However, despite the falls across the four indicators, they all outperformed the same period in 2022, according to the RSM Hotels Tracker. The data, produced by Hotstats and analysed by RSM, shows occupancy rates of hotels in Scotland was down from 80.3% in October to 73.6% in November. Although occupancy is yet to reach pre-pandemic levels, it surpassed those seen last November in Scotland (72.9%). Average daily rates (ADR) of occupied rooms in Scotland decreased from £126.72 (October) down to £109.17 (November). These rates are ahead of the rates charged in November 2022, which were £105.43. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) declined from £107.71 (October) to £80.33 (November) in Scotland, while gross operating profits saw a sharp fall from 32.1% in October to 22.2% in November.
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/scottish-hotels-perform-better-expected-31910929