A brave stab at optimism

The Confederation of British Industry's sales data for July looked promising. But in reality, the numbers were as dire as usual, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

You could, if you wanted, put a good gloss on the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) sales data for July. The FT had a go, noting that "shops reported one of their best months in a year", and suggesting that "punters appear to be returning to pubs".

But in fact the numbers are as dire as usual. Sales volumes fell for 47% of stores in the survey and rose for 32%. That's a balance of minus 13. Better than June's 17 and the best number since last June, yes. But still a figure that represents a big fall in overall sales, despite the boost retailers got from the mini-heatwave at the start of the month.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.