Late Easter pushes consumer spending levels up in April

The timing of the Easter holidays this year has given a boost to April's economic data, with both retail sales and consumer spending registering significant rises.A sales monitor compiled by the British Retail Consortium and accountancy firm KPMG shows that we spent 5.6% more in April this year on a like-for-like basis compared to the same month of 2016, when growth was flat.Consumer spending figures from Barclaycard echo the trend, with a 5.5% rise reported across the month.