The British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) Retail Sales Monitor showed a pickup in UK retail activity at the start of the year, with year-over-year sales growth rising to 2.3% in January 2026. This marks an acceleration from the previous 1.0% annual increase recorded in December 2025.
The data, updated on 10 February 2026, compares each month’s performance with the same month a year earlier. January’s figure suggests that retailers entered 2026 with stronger momentum than at the end of last year, as the growth rate more than doubled on this basis. While the monitor does not break down categories in this release, the improvement in the headline indicator will be closely watched by investors and policymakers as an early signal of consumer spending trends in the UK.
