Financial Times FT.com

Surprise retail sales rise bucks trend

By Daniel Pimlott, Economics reporter

Published: February 21 2009 01:24 | Last updated: February 21 2009 01:24

Retail sales rose in January, confounding expectations that consumers would cut spending at the beginning of the year amid a rapidly declining economy.

Sales volumes were up 0.7 per cent in January, after a 1.6 per cent rise in December, the Office for National Statistics reported on Friday.

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