UK retail sales fell by 0.4 per cent between August and September as hard-pressed consumers cut back on purchases of household goods, clothing and footwear, according to the latest data from the Office of National Statistics.

However, economists said the overall sales growth was still stronger than expected and noted that the data for much of this year had been inconsistent with surveys from the British Retail Consortium, the CBI and the Bank of England’s own Agents’ survey. which on Wednesday recorded a sharp drop in retail expenditure in September.