Three-year high for sales lifts high street

THE strongest growth in retail sales volumes for almost three years during the first half of February gave some much-needed cheer to the high street yesterday.

A positive 23 per cent balance of retailers said sales for the period were ahead of a year earlier – the highest reading for the CBI business group's distributive trades survey since May 2007.

The better-than-expected result is a "clear improvement" on a snow-swept January, the CBI said.

Andy Clarke, the chief operating officer of Asda and chairman of the CBI distributive trades panel, said: "Sales have been stronger this month than many retailers predicted they would be, but that's not surprising as January was impacted by VAT changes and forward buys in December."

The figures come after official statistics last week showed sales volumes fell by a bigger-than- expected 1.8 per cent in January.

The CBI survey found a 16 per cent balance of retailers expect growth in March to be stronger than a year ago, although over the next three months the business situation is expected to be broadly stable.

Clothing sales rose at their fastest pace since October 2006, while grocers also performed strongly, the CBI noted. Household goods and furniture stores bounced back from a poor January, although there were further falls for hardware and DIY sales.

JP Morgan economist Allan Monks said the data "suggests weather was a significant factor behind the drop in January". He added: "Given that, the CBI offers a comforting message that we might expect similar improvements in other February releases."