LONDON (AFX) - UK January retail sales volumes were down 0.3 pct on a seasonally adjusted basis from December and were up 4.2 pct from a year earlier, National Statistics said. The 0.3 pct fall in the volume of retail sales between December and January is the second consecutive monthly decline after eighteen months of growth. The AFX News median of analysts' forecasts was for January sales volumes to have risen a seasonally-adjusted 0.8 pct from December and 5.9 pct year-on-year. In the three months to January sales rose an adjusted 0.9 pct on the previous three months and were up 5.6 pct from a year ago. The three-monthly growth rates into January are lower than in recent months, NS added. NS said the implied deflator for January was at 1.1 compared with -0.1 pct in December. It added that the January data covered five weeks from 30 December to 2 February. The total value of sales in January is estimated at 19.98 bln stg, 5.5 pct higher than the same month last year, it said. Based on non-seasonally adjusted data, the average weekly value of retail sales in January was 4.00 bln stg, 5.5 pct higher than in January 2001. In the three months to January, the value of sales in current prices was up 5.1 pct compared with the same period a year ago. NS added that the year-on-year growth in the value of spending for all retailers, at 5.5 pct, is the lowest annual growth since February 2001, when it was at 5.3 pct. The year-on-year growth in the value of spending in predominantly non-food stores decreased to 4.3 pct, from 6.8 pct in December. NS said this was the lowest annual growth since November 2000, and is caused by textile, clothing and footwear stores with year-on-year growth of 1.4 pct, versus 7.4 pct in December, and other stores with annual growth of 1.5 pct, versus 6.0 pct in December. The value of sales in 2001 was 6.4 pct higher than in 2000.