LONDON (AFX) - UK April retail sales volumes were up 0.6 pct on a seasonally adjusted basis from March and were up 5.9 pct from a year earlier, National Statistics said.
NS said this is the highest annual growth since January 2000. There was little discernible impact from the foot-and- mouth epidemic to be gleaned from the data, it added.
The AFX News median of analysts' forecasts was for April sales volumes to have risen a seasonally-adjusted 0.3 pct from March and 5.3 pct year-on-year.
In the three months to April sales rose an adjusted 1.4 pct on the previous three months and were up 5.4 pct from a year ago.
NS said the implied deflator for April was at 0.4 pct compared with 1.0 pct in March.
It added that the April data continued to show the strong growth in spending seen in the March figures. Volumes of sales in April are also showing an increase in growth, with overall price increases lower than in March.
Growth has been driven mainly by sales in the non-food sector, NS said. Meanwhile, there was a slight tailing off in food prices, it added.
NS said the annual increase in the textile, clothing and footwear sector is the highest since records began in 1986 due to price falls.
Based on non-seasonally adjusted data, the average weekly value of retail sales in April was 4.04 bln stg, 6.3 pct higher than in April 2000.
In the three months to April, the value of sales in current prices was up 5.7 pct compared with the same period a year ago.