Brighton and Hove business leaders have warned traders not to be fooled by healthy-looking sales figures for January.
The total value of sales rose 6.4 per cent in January, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The Brighton and Hove Business Forum said: “This is a strong result.”
But it questioned whether it was a sign of an upward trend or whether there were specific reasons why the apparent trend would not continue into February.
One answer came form the British Retail Consortium (BRC) which said that the figures were distorted because shoppers had rushed to beat the VAT rise.
It also said that there was a knock-on effect from the severe weather that prevented people from getting to the shops before Christmas.
One Brighton shop owner said that the snow in January last year hit business a year ago, making this year’s figures look better than they really were.
He said: “January wasn’t a great month. It’s just that December was awful with the snow and bad weather and January 2010 was pretty poor too.
“I can’t say that I really noticed people rushing to beat the rise in VAT. It just means more work for people trying to tun a business – and of course some hard thinking about whether to absorb the rise or pass it on.”
The BRC’s director-general Stephen Robertson said, “Superficially, these are strong figures but they don’t indicate any permanent revival in customers’ willingness to spend.
“Growth this January was driven by a relatively short but strong burst of non-food buying early in the month.
“Some of that was spending held over from December when severe weather stopped people getting out.
“Shoppers also took their final opportunity to beat the VAT rise in the first few days of January.
“Then, even after the VAT rise came in, it did minimal damage to sales because the effect on prices was largely lost among a mass of discounts and promotions.
“But these are short-term influences. Our own figures show spending tailed off sharply as the month (January) developed.
“Slumping consumer confidence indicates concerns about jobs and finances are now reasserting themselves.
“February’s results will be a better indicator of how things really are.”
