UK retail sales were unchanged on a month-on-month basis in March, defying expectations for a gain, preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics showed Friday.

Retail sales including automotive fuel grew 0.1 percent in the previous month. Economists were looking for a 0.3 percent gain for March.

This was the weakest outcome since December, when sales shrunk 3.5 percent.

Excluding auto fuel, retail sales decreased 0.3 percent, reversing a similar size gain from the previous month. This was the first decline in three months.

Automotive fuel and non-food stores sales volumes grew 3.2 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.

In March, automotive sales reached their highest index level since May 2022 and retailers attributed the rise to increased footfall on their forecourts.

These were offset by declines of 0.7 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively, in food stores and non-store retailers. Increased prices damped consumer spending habits, the ONS said.

On a year-on-year basis, retail sales rose 0.8 percent in March after a 0.3 percent fall in February. This marked the biggest gain since March 2022, when sales grew 1.8 percent from the previous year.

Core retail sales rose 0.4 percent from the same month last year, reversing the 0.4 percent drop from the previous month.

Sales volumes remained 1.2 percent below their pre-coronavirus pandemic level in February 2020.

In the first quarter, retail sales volumes grew 1.9 percent from the previous three month, following low sales volumes over the Christmas period for retailers.

Online retail sales edged up 0.1 percent monthly in March and were higher by 1.7 percent from a year ago.

The share of online sales rose from 25.8 percent in February to 25.9 percent in March.

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