Sales Up for British Retailers

April was good month for retailers, according to figures from the British Retail Consortium. The result, published this week, will help justify the Bank of England's decision to freeze interest rates at 3.75 per cent.

The British Retail Consortium KPMG retailer-sales monitor is set to show that sales last month were up by 4 per cent on a year earlier on a like-for-like basis, a return to the growth rates of last autumn.

Amanda Aldridge, UK head of retail at KPMG commented 'young fashion in particular seems to have had a good time.' 'But bigger items for the home, such as furniture, appear to have had a disappointing Easter, which is normally a good period.'

The Bank's monetary-policy committee left rates unchanged in spite of calls from industry for a cut. Figures on Friday showed 0.4 per cent drop in manufacturing output in March, and are likely to result in a downward revision to the already weak 0.2 per cent first-quarter growth rate for gross domestic product.

The MPC is widely believed to have held off because of the weak pound, which has fallen 7 per cent this year.