Wet weather dampens retail sales

Many High Streets were impassable for shoppers

The wet weather dampened High Street spending in July, figures have shown, with monthly sales growth at its lowest level for eight months.

The British Retail Consortium said like-for-like sales - which exclude sales from new stores - rose 1.2% in July compared with 4.6% in June.

This represented the weakest monthly performance since last November.

Policymakers will be looking at retail conditions to gauge whether another rise in interest rates is justified.

'Wait and see'

The Bank of England kept rates on hold at 5.75% earlier this month although many experts believe a further rise is likely later this year unless inflation falls significantly.

But the BRC said this course of action would not be sensible.

"Given these conditions, the Bank should now wait and see what happens over the next few months before doing anything further with rates," said its director Kevin Hawkins.

Over a comparative three-month period to the end of July, like-for-like sales growth slowed to 2.1% compared to 2.5% in the previous quarter.

The unseasonable weather hit sales of clothing, footwear and food but department stores benefited from stronger demand for electrical goods and home furnishings.