Britain’s retailers suffered from weaker sales last month as mounting uncertainty over the UK’s departure from the EU led to consumers becoming more wary of making bigger purchases before Brexit.
In the latest evidence that momentum in the economy is fading during the weeks before Britain is scheduled to formally leave the EU, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and accountancy firm KPMG said that total sales growth dropped to 0.5% in the year to February, down from 1.6% a year earlier.
Shoppers were more reluctant to spend on discretionary goods, despite an improving outlook for household finances from fading levels of inflation and the strongest wage increases for British workers in a decade.
