Mubasher: The quantity of the UK’s retail sales grew 0.7% quarter-on-quarter during the three-month period ended 31 January 2019.

In January alone, retail sales increased by 1%, according to data released by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Friday.

“Year-on-year growth in the quantity bought in January 2019 was 4.2%, the highest since December 2016; while year-on-year average store prices slowed to 0.4%, the lowest price increase since November 2016,” the ONS said.

The quantity bought at textile, clothing, and footwear stores rose 5.5% year-on-year in January, as stores benefits from the month's sales and the decrease in prices by around 0.9%.

The quantity bought of food also grew 3.2% in year-on-year in January, based on a slowdown in prices.

“Online sales as a total of all retailing decreased to 18.8% in January 2019, from the 19.8% reported in December 2018,” the ONS revealed.

The British pound rose on the back of the data, so that by 10:42 am GMT, the GBP/USD grew 0.12% to $1.2818, while EUR/GBP fell 0.26% to GBP 0.8799.