The UK Shows More Signs of Recovery Thanks to Retail

New positive signals have been coming from London as of late. While the euro zone struggles with a potential Greek bankruptcy and signs of a recession, Britain once again seems to have escaped the problems threatening the rest Europe by following the examples of the US and several other major economies.

In January, contrary to the forecasts of many economists, Britain's Office for National Statistics reported that retail sales rose to a level not seen since last April, when Prince William and Kate Middleton were wedded.

Despite forecasts that projected a decline of 0.4 percent following the holiday shopping season, surveys have revealed an increase of 0.9 percent compared to December 2011, and a 2 percent increase compared to January of last year.

The data foreshadows what could be economic growth of 0.5 percent for the first quarter of 2012, after the contraction of 0.2 percent recorded between October and December 2011. It shows that the Bank of England's original prediction of an increase in economic growth of around 2 percent by the end of 2012 might not have been far off the mark. Besides some aggressive price cuts spurring buying, a large chunk of the growth in retail sales came from increased online sales, which made up around 12 percent of the total. That number is up from a total of 9 percent a year ago. In Britain, online transactions have been heavily encouraged in everyday life by the government and banks, along with debit and credit cards. Meanwhile, people and companies in some other European countries such as Italy have been more hesitant to do business online or electronically because of safety concerns and substandard utilization of computer technology. Considerable cost savings and other bonuses can be achieved by moving commerce and other essential services to the electronic realm. Many European countries have not benefited from these potential advantages to the extent Britain has, where for example retail sales are currently being pumped up by the Internet. Perhaps it is time the European countries that are lagging behind Britain - where a recession seems less and less likely as the days go by - started taking this issue more seriously.