Western European visitors helped maintain sales growth across stores during March.
The strength of the Euro, against a weak dollar and yen, lead to retail sales in Central London show a 2.0% year-on-year increase, on a like-for-like basis, compared with a 10.8% annual increase in March 2007.

The British Retail Consortium said that signature products sold well, especially over the Easter weekend, but trade in in-store restaurants was mixed.

Food and seasonal gifts enjoyed a boost from Easter but clothing and footwear sales were tough as well as homewares.