Best performance since May, says British Retail Consortium, as sales driven by heavy discounting.
The British Retail Consortium's (BRC) sales monitor, in association with KPMG, revealed a like-for-like rise of 1.1% for UK retail sales in January 2009 and a 3.2% increase on a total basis from January 2008.

According to the trade association, both increases represent the best performance since May, when sunny weather boosted sales.

Food sales showed stronger growth. Non-food sales remained slightly down on a year ago - though by less than in December.

Overall, sales were driven by heavy discounting in clearance sales, although, after a good start to the month, sales growth is then said to have weakened as clearances ended.

Online non-food sales in January were 19.2% higher than a year ago, although this was weaker than the 30% gain in December when people increasingly used the internet for Christmas purchases.

BRC director general Stephen Robertson said: "These surprisingly good figures give some room for optimism. Overall sales growth turned positive and is higher than it's been since last May.

He added: "Non-food sales fell more slowly suggesting January clearance deals released pent-up demand and customers started to spend on goods they've been intending to buy for months."