BBC

A surge in spending on clothes helped to boost retail sales last month, as lockdown measures eased and non-essential shops reopened.

Retail sales jumped 9.2% in April, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, with sales of clothing soaring by nearly 70% compared with March.

Sales overall were more than 10% higher than pre-pandemic levels, although online sales dipped.
Further evidence of the rebound in the UK economy came in a separate survey, an IHS/Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index, which suggested that activity among private business during May has expanded at the fastest pace for more than two decades.