Data: Valentine’s Day helps boost retail sales

Retail sales enjoyed a modest growth of 1.1% last month as shoppers sought out gifts to celebrate Valentine’s Day, according to the latest figures from the BRC-KPMG retail sales monitor.
This follows the 1.1% rise of the same month last year, but was below the 3-month average growth of 2.4% and above the 12-month average growth of 0.8%.
Food sales increased by 2.3% year on year, down from the 5.6% increase in February 2024, while non-food sales were flat last month, against a decline of 2.