Is the British High Street finally emerging from its extended hibernation? Official figures showed sales volumes – ie the quantity of items bought – were up 2.9 per cent in May after a fall of 1.8 per cent in April.

That figure was comfortably above economists’ expectations (1.5 per cent according to a Reuters poll). More importantly, they also rose by 1 per cent over three months and 1.2 per cent year on year (excluding fuel).

As ever, we need a bit of context before we get ahead of ourselves. The year-on-year figure is the first positive for three months, and the British Retail Consortium pointed out that sales “still remain below their 2021 levels”.

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