The following is an unedited transcript of the news release from the British Retail Consortium.


UK retail sales rose 1.5% on a like-for-like basis, compared with February 2007, when sales were up 3.3% compared with a weak February 2006. The three-month trend rate of growth edged up to 1.6% from 1.5% in January for like-for-like sales, and to 4.0% from 3.7% for total sales, reflecting the continuing growth of retail space.

Food sales remained strong. Despite some continued discounting, clothing and footwear were down on a year ago. Homewares and furniture weakened further, generally down on a year ago, but health and beauty benefited from the early Mothering Sunday. Consumer confidence has fallen further to all-time lows. Shoppers are still very price-conscious and reluctant to splash out on major purchases, so discounting was still needed to tempt customers to buy.


Available at:

http://www.brc.org.uk/details04.asp?id=1335&kCat=&kData=1