Don’t believe the hype. Despite forecasts of record sales for this year’s shopping frenzy, Black Friday appears to have been a bit of damp squib, with online sales growth falling significantly short of predictions.
The Times reports that purchasing online was up by only 6.7 per cent against the same day the previous year, compared with forecasts of a 25 per cent leap. This is according to PCA Predict, which tracks online transactions for retailers.
Balancing the slowdown in online sales growth was a 2 per cent annual rise in shoppers across high streets, retail parks and shopping centres in the UK, figures from Springboard suggested.
However, The Telegraph reports that ‘British shoppers are expected to increase spending by a fifth to £1.9 billion today’, the so-called ‘Cyber Monday’. The paper also says that ‘over the entire weekend, UK consumers are expected to spend £5.76 billion, an increase of 15 per cent on last year’.
Pensions
The Guardian reports that the Government could be making steps to increase the official state pension age to 70 for millions of people currently in their 20s.
Steve Webb, a former minister, said documents produced by the Department for Work and Pensions suggested a ‘more aggressive’ timetable on state pension age increases than previously planned was being prepared.
Rail fares
Thousands of ticket machines may have to be redesigned as ministers move to stop commuters being ripped off by hugely complex pricing systems, according to The Times.
It is likely that rail companies will be forced to highlight the lowest price for any journey. The move, which will be outlined next month by the Department for Transport, will cover tickets sold by office staff as well as those from self-service machines.
Energy firm
An energy firm with 160,000 customers has stopped trading. In a statement, GB Energy Supply blamed recent increases in energy prices, saying that, as a small supplier, business had ‘become untenable’, but assured people their supply would not be affected.
The BBC reports that ‘Ofgem said it would appoint a new supplier and stressed that outstanding credit balances were protected. The energy regulator advised customers to take a meter reading and wait until their new supplier contacted them.’ Bank of Mum and Dad The Bank of Mum and Dad is still playing an important role in the property market according to new research from Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks. The annual First Time Buyers Survey from the Banks has revealed that almost half of first time buyers still need financial help to take their first step on the property ladder, with 18 per cent receiving a loan from their family while 18 per cent were gifted money by their parents. The findings highlighted that this is slightly higher than those seeking financial support in 2015 but considerably less than in 2012 and 2013. PPI Thousands more claims for payment protection insurance could be on the cards after the financial ombudsman was forced to look again at the case of a man who complained that he had been mis-sold PPI. The Times reports that William Edmunds had an initial complaint about PPI on his MBNA credit card rejected by the ombudsman, but legal action by a claims company acting for Edmunds has forced the ombudsman to reconsider his case. That could lead to many more rejected cases being reopened, according to We Fight Any Claim. Finally… The UK will have one of the lowest growth rates of any G20 country within two years, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has forecast. The BBC reports that the OECD says growth will fall to 1.2 per cent next year – the slowest since 2009 – worse than the Bank of England and Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts.
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