British shoppers stepped up purchases the most in over a decade in the second quarter despite lower spending in June, giving the Bank of England some reassurance that tahe sluggish start to 2018 is over. Retail sales volumes in June alone unexpectedly fell 0.5 per cent from May at the low end of economists’ forecasts as the World Cup kept some shoppers out of stores after extremely rapid growth during the previous two months. Overall economic growth in Britain this year is likely to be the weakest since 2012.

The latest retail sales data showed clothing sales suffered from the heat, but food and drink retailers did well as shoppers took advantage of unusually hot weather. However, old-style clothing retailers such as Marks & Spencer, Debenhams and House of Fraser have struggled, and furniture retailers DFS and Dunelm reported lack lustre results, in part due to hot weather keeping shoppers away.

Retail sales growth and Britain's economy overall slowed in the first three months of 2018, due to heavy snow as well as ongoing pressures from high inflation and the anticipation of next year's Brexit, and the BoE stated in May that it would delay raising rates until it was sure that growth was back on track.

Sales for the second quarter as a whole were 2.1 per cent higher than the first three months of the year, the biggest calendar-quarter increase since the first quarter of 2004.