UK retail sales in slowdown

British consumers bought fewer household goods last month pushing the annual rate of spending growth for the quarter in the UK to its lowest in more than two years.

Retail sales volumes dropped by 0.2 percent in June to show just 4.0 percent growth on the year according to data from the Office for National Statistics. It is the slowest annual growth since September last year and below almost all economists’ forecasts.

The ONS said the annual growth rate was still “strong”, but the numbers may raise questions about how robustly Britain’s economy is bouncing back from a slowdown in the first three months of this year.