High street in gloom for a full 12 months

BRITAIN'S retailers have suffered a "full year of pain" as steep sales falls in the year to March reversed brighter figures the previous month, data out yesterday revealed.

The CBI's latest distributive trades survey showed a worse-than-expected balance of 44 per cent of retailers who said sales had fallen.

This cancelled out February's more positive balance of 25 per cent reporting a drop, the cheeriest figure since last June.

Andy Clarke, chairman of the CBI distributive trades panel, said: "These poor figures complete a full year of pain for retailers and it is disappointing that the less bleak results in February could not be sustained.

"With unemployment rising and household incomes struggling, the high street faces some testing times ahead. The recession forces consumers to re-examine every item of spending."

Retailers remained gloomy about the prospects for an upturn in April with a 42 per cent balance predicting sales volumes would fall.