Growth in food sales slowed as inflation added to a drop-off in retail sales after the January clearance boost faded, according to results released by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) today.

UK retail sales values fell 1.8 per cent on a like-for-like basis, and rose only 0.1 per cent in total from February 2008. On both measures, sales fell back after January’s clearance-driven improvement.

Like-for-like food sales saw a 4.3 per cent rise while overall food sales were up six per cent but this was less than half of non-food non-store sales, which were up 12.3 per cent and down on February 2008.

Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive of the IGD, said the food industry had had a fluctuating month: “February was a month of two halves. The heavy snow that fell in the first two weeks of the month encouraged many people to stock up on food. In the end, the grocery supply chain delivered the goods, keeping the shelves full. So people had less need for food shopping in the second half of the month as they worked through stock-piles.

“Valentine’s Day helpfully fell on a Saturday and many chose to indulge at home instead of eating out. This is a trend we have seen in IGD consumer research, with a third of shoppers telling us that they are eating out less because of the recession.

“Food price inflation is expected to ease in the second half of 2009 as prices are compared with a higher base. However, we anticipate that inflation will remain a feature of the market for some time to come.”

Stephen Robertson, director general of the BRC, said: “These are disappointing figures. It's now clear we were right to fear January's surprise year-on-year sales rise was just a discount-driven blip. The short burst of spending unleashed by January clearances has largely vanished, replaced by sales as weak as most of last year. Food sales are proving more resilient but every non-food sector, apart from children's clothes, saw like-for-like sales down on a year ago.”

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