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22 Jan 2021

Retail sales fall by record amount

Economics Correspondent

Retail sales dropped by the largest amount on record last year, with many shops forced to close for months because of lockdown.

Clothes stores were hit hard, but food benefited from the closure of restaurants and cafes.

The squeeze will intensify with a third lockdown now in place and the damage to the government’s finances became clear today, with record borrowing in December.