Shopping Numbers Down

Record rainfall, higher interest rates and fears over house price falls all conspired to dampen enthusiasm for shopping in the UK last month. A Confederation of British Industry survey said the second successive marked slowdown in retail sales showed that July's slowing trend was not a temporary blip.

The CBI's monthly distributive trades survey showed 34 per cent of companies said sales rose on the year while re per cent said they were down. Sales of clothing, hurt by the weather conditions, were flat.