"Tough 2008" predicted for London retailers

Despite London retailers bouncing back from a poor November, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) is still warning of a "tough 2008" for the city’s retailers.

According to the BRC's London Retail Sales Monitor, 2007’s Christmas sales in London were up by 7.1% from 2006 on a like-for-like basis. However the rate of increase was itself down by 9.8% when calculated year-on-year.

The figures suggest that most of the visitors to London came from western and eastern Europe, encouraged by the strong euro. Japanese and US visitors appeared to have been put off by the weakness of the dollar and yen.

Designer fashions, accessories and premium beauty products maintained the strongest performance, while sales of homeware and off-the-shelf clothing fared less well.

BRC director-general Kevin Hawkins said: "While London’s retailers significantly outperformed the rest of the UK, weaker growth shows they were hit hard by severe pressure on customers' personal finances.

"They discounted early and deep to tempt customers in; great for bargain hunters but an indication of a very tough start to 2008."