Black Friday's move online helped boost UK retail sales in November

UK retailers had a great month in November.

The Office for National Statistics' monthly retail sales data for November just dropped, and the figures beat expectations.

Total sales for UK retailers grew by 1.7% compared with October, and shot up by 5% against sales in November 2014.

Retail analysts predicted that sales in November would grow by 0.5%, rebounding from the 0.6% loss witnessed in October. It was also expected that year-on-year growth in the sector would hit 3%, down from the 3.8% reported in October's figures.

November's figures were given a boost by Black Friday, the American shopping day which was super popular last year but disappointed in stores this year, as shoppers opted not to take part in the crazy scenes witnessed in shops on Black Friday 2014.

Instead, shoppers went online to get their bargains, which was reflected in a 12.7% increase in online sales from November 2014, and a boost of 4.9% from October.

Earlier in December, the British Retail Consortium reported that retail sales in November grew by 0.7%, down from 2.2% over the same period last year, reflecting Black Friday's decrease in popularity.

Retail sales are watched closely for signs of the strength of the consumer recovery. Stronger figures could mean a Bank of England rate hike coming sooner rather than later.