Trading results released over the last week by a number of UK supermarkets show that retail sales over the important Christmas period were robust in the UK. Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s – three of the UK’s four largest supermarkets – all reported steady sales growth over Christmas.

Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket, reported like-for-like sales growth of 2.1% in its UK stores for the 19-week period to 6 January. Encouragingly from an Irish perspective, food sales in Tesco’s UK stores led the growth with grocery sales increasing by 3.4% during the period, which is above the food inflation rate of 2.5%. Buoyed by strong consumer confidence in the Irish economy right now, Tesco said sales grew by 3.5% in its Irish stores.

Sainsbury’s reported slightly lower sales growth in groceries of 2.3% for its third-quarter period to 6 January. The UK’s second largest supermarket reiterated its guidance for underlying profits for its 2017 financial year to be moderately above £559m (€631m).

Morrison’s, the UK’s fourth largest supermarket, reported like-for-like sales growth of 2.8% for the 10-week period to 7 January. Morrison’s described the Christmas period as especially strong, with sales up 3.7% during the busiest weeks.

The supermarket said footfall was up for the period, with the number of transactions increasing 2.3%. However, the number of items per basket fell by almost 5%. German discounter Lidl said it grew its UK sales by 16% over the Christmas period with a record customer footfall in December.