US retail sales rose 3.1% this holiday season — sharp drop from 7.6% last year: report

Published

5 months ago

December 28, 2023

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Inflation-battered shoppers cut back on their holiday spending this year — opening their wallets mainly for “big deals,” according to industry experts and newly released figures.

US retail sales rose just 3.1% year-over-year between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24 — well short of analyst forecasts of 3.7% and less than half of the 7.6% spike recorded last year, according to Mastercard.

Amazon and Walmart ramped up promotions through November to entice bargain-hunting shoppers, but analysts said the discounts were not as deep as the prior year when retailers were saddled with excess stock after the pandemic.

Arun Sundaram, an analyst at CRFA Research, said many shoppers waited for Black Friday and Cyber Monday to make holiday purchases and finished the final sprint during Super Saturday — the last shopping day before Christmas.

“Consumers are still spending, but they’re still price conscious and want to stretch their budgets,” Sundaram said.

He said the weeks between Cyber Monday and Super Saturday were a “soft period” for spending, but shoppers used the final weekend before Christmas to look for “big deals.”

Online shopping accounted for a large chunk of this year’s holiday spending. According to the Mastercard report, online retail sales jumped by 6.3% year-over-year, while in-store sales rose just 2.2%.

Apparel sales jumped 2.4%, while in-person dining at restaurants soared by 7.8%, according to the report.

There were declines in sales of jewelry (2%) and electronics (0.4%).

Ultimately, it was about getting the most bang for your buck as consumers spent on a variety of goods and services, resurfacing spending trends from before the pandemic, Mastercard senior adviser Steve Sadove said.

Americans have been saddled with soaring prices in recent years though there have been signs inflation is beginning to cool.

The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation — the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index (PCE) — rose less than expected in November.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, core inflation, which excludes food and energy costs, rose 0.1% compared to October.

That was lower than the 0.2% rise forecast by economists polled by Reuters. The year-over-year increase was 3.2%, lower than Octobers 3.4% gain.

The figures signal that the Fed is winning a nearly two-year battle against inflation and further increase the odds for lower interest rates in the new year.

The Federal Reserve has signaled that it intends to slash interest rates which are currently between 5.25% and 5.5% by as much as 75 basis points in 2024.

Projections from all 19 policymakers that showed near unanimity that borrowing costs would fall next year, many of them by a substantial margin following their latest policy meeting earlier this month, when borrowing costs held steady at their 22-year high.

Politics

Infected blood victims to get £210,000 interim compensation payment from this summer

Published

1 hour ago

May 21, 2024

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Infected blood victims to get £210,000 interim compensation payment from this summer

Victims of the infected blood scandal will get £210,000 as an interim compensation payment from as early as this summer, the government has announced.

Cabinet minister John Glen told parliament the initial payment will be given to people living with the effects of contaminated blood “within 90 days, starting in the summer”.

Infected people who die between now and the payments being made will get the money sent to their estates, he added.

Mr Glen said: “As the prime minister made clear yesterday, there is no restriction on the budget. Where we need to pay, we will pay.

“We will minimise delays, we will address the recommendations of Sir Brian Langstaff with respect to that – speed and efficiency, and removing as much complexity as possible.”

The minister did not confirm the cost of the compensation package, but former justice secretary Robert Buckland said it could be upwards of £10 billion.

Mr Glen’s announcement came the day after a report into the scandal was published following a seven-year inquiry.

More than 30,000 Britons were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C from contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. More than 3,000 people died.

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Reaction to government’s response

Mr Glen also announced:

• The Infected Blood Compensation Authority – an “arm’s length body” – has been established to administer compensation, with Sir Robert Francis KC as the interim chair

• Anyone directly or indirectly infected by NHS blood, blood products or tissue contaminated with HIV or Hepatitis C, or developed a chronic infection from blood contaminated with Hepatitis B is eligible for compensation

• If someone would have been eligible but has died, compensation will be paid to their estate

• When a victim has been accepted onto the scheme, their affected partners, parents, siblings, children, friends and family who acted as carers of them can claim in their own right

• People who are registered with an existing infected blood support scheme will be automatically eligible for compensation to minimise the distress of proving they should be

• There will be five types of compensation: an injury impact award, social impact award (to acknowledge the stigma or social isolation from being infected), autonomy award (for disrupted family/private life), care award (for past and future care needs), and financial loss award (for past and future financial losses caused by being infected)

• Compensation will be offered in a lump sum or periodic payments

• The family of anyone who has died will get a single lump sum

• Any payments will be exempt from income, capital gains and inheritance tax

• Payments will not count towards means tested benefit assessments

• All recipients can appeal their compensation

• Final payments will start before the end of the year

• No immediate changes to existing infected blood support scheme payments – they will continue until 31 March 2025 and will not be deducted from new compensation

• From 1 April 2025, any support scheme payments received will be counted towards final compensation

• Nobody will receive less in compensation than they would have received in support payments.

Sir Brian Langstaff, chair of the inquiry, found the scandal was “not an accident” and its failures lie with “successive governments, the NHS, and blood services”.

He said the response from governments of different stripes and the NHS “compounded” victims’ suffering.

This included the “deliberate destruction of some documents” by Department of Health workers, in what Sir Brian described as a “pervasive cover-up” and “downright deception”.

“It could largely, though not entirely, have been avoided. And I report that it should have been,” he said, adding the “scale of what happened is horrifying” for victims and their families.

Victims and their families welcomed the report following decades of not being believed.

Rishi Sunak offered a “wholehearted and unequivocal” apology to the victims following the report’s publication, saying it was a “day of shame for the British state”.

He promised compensation would be given to victims and those affected, adding: “Whatever it costs to deliver this scheme, we will pay it.”

UK

Singapore Airlines: British man dies in severe turbulence as flight from London Heathrow forced to land in Bangkok

Published

1 hour ago

May 21, 2024

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Singapore Airlines: British man dies in severe turbulence as flight from London Heathrow forced to land in Bangkok

A 73-year-old British man has died from a suspected heart attack after turbulence on a London-Singapore flight.

Dozens more have been injured after passengers described people being “launched into the ceiling” and overhead lockers.

Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 from Heathrow was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.

Seven people have serious head injuries and others have minor wounds, said the head of the Thailand airport.

The aircraft took off at 10.38pm UK time on Monday but diverted to Bangkok, landing at 3.45pm local time on Tuesday.

Passenger Dzafran Azmir, 28, described chaos as the turbulence hit.

“Suddenly the aircraft starts tilting up and there was shaking so I started bracing for what was happening,” he said.

“And very suddenly there was a very dramatic drop so everyone seated and not wearing seatbelts was launched immediately into the ceiling.”

“Some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it,” he added.

“They hit the places where lights and masks are and broke straight through it.”

Briton Andrew Davies told Sky News “anyone who had a seatbelt on isn’t injured”.

He said the seatbelt sign came on, but there was no time for crew to take their seats.

Mr Davies said “every single cabin crew person I saw was injured in some way or another, maybe with a gash on their head… One had a bad back, who was in obvious pain.”

Kittipong Kittikachorn, head of Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, told reporters a British man, 73, had died from probable cardiac arrest.

He said about 30 people were injured, including at least one crew member, and that many passengers couldn’t walk and had to be helped from the aircraft

It’s believed the sudden turbulence hit while people were being served breakfast, the airport boss added.

Mr Kittikachorn blamed an “air pocket” for the incident.

He said the dead man’s wife was with him at hospital and that some people with minor injuries had already been discharged.

The UK Foreign Office said it was “in contact with the local authorities” over the incident.

Flight tracking data showed the plane cruising at 37,000ft (11,280m) before dropping 6,000ft (1,830m) in around three minutes.

However, a spokesperson for FlightRadar24 said this appeared to “just be a flight level change in preparation for landing”.

There were 211 passengers and 18 crew on the plane, a Boeing 777-300ER.

Turbulence can hit without warning

Jo Robinson

Weather producer

@SkyJoRobinson

There are a few forms of turbulence – where there’s a sudden change in airflow and wind speed.

Turbulence can often be associated with storm clouds, which are usually well forecast and monitored, allowing planes to fly around them.

Clear-Air Turbulence (CAT) is much more dangerous as there are no visual signs, such as clouds.

This invisible vertical air movement usually occurs at and above 15,000ft and is mostly linked to the jet stream.

There are clues on where CAT may occur, but generally it can’t be detected ahead of time, which means flight crews can be caught unaware with no time to warn passengers and put seat belt signs on.

It’s been understood for some time that climate change is increasing turbulence during flights, and the trend is set to worsen according to reports.

Social media video showed ambulances surrounding the aircraft on the tarmac.

“Singapore Airlines offers its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased,” the company said in a statement.

“We deeply apologise for the traumatic experience that our passengers and crew members suffered on this flight.”

It said it was working with Thai authorities and sending a team to Bangkok to help.

Singapore is considered a standard-setter for the aviation industry and consistently tops airline awards.

Turbulence-related injuries are the most common type on passenger planes, according to a study by the US National Transportation Safety Board.

It found it was responsible for more than a third of accidents between 2009 and 2018, but no aircraft damage.

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