Growth in the like-for-like value of UK retail sales rose strongly inMarch from the previous month, the British Retail Consortium reportedMonday. The BRC sales monitor for March showed like-for-like salesrising by 4.8% on a year earlier, up from 3.5% in February. Total sales,which includes sales in new space, in March were up 7.0% on Marchlast year compared with growth of 5.7% in February. The three-monthtrend rate of growth improved for like-for-like sales to 3.8% in Marchfrom 3.3% in February, while that for total sales rose to 6.1% from5.5%. The BRC said food sales were exceptionally strong hroughoutmuch of March, with customers stocking up when meat shortages werefeared following the foot-and-mouth outbreak. Some shopping centresappeared to have benefited from extra footfall at weekends as otherleisure pursuits such as horse riding and walking were affected byfoot-and-mouth restrictions. Stores in small Cumbrian and Devontowns were reported to be showing reduced sales. Small independentstores in rural tourist areas are most likely to have seen poor salesdue to foot-and-mouth disease, but they are not covered in the survey.