July's wet weather reduced growth in high street sales to just 1.2 per cent on a like-for-like basis with July 2006, according to the British Retail Consortium's (BRC) monthly sales monitor.
Twelve months ago British retailers were enjoying hot weather and the World Cup, in sharp contrast to the recent flooding across much of southern England.
When combined with five interest rate hikes in the last year shopkeepers have been forced to employ major price discounting to tempt wary consumers into big-ticket purchases.
Meanwhile the chief 'engines' of retail growth – the food and clothing sectors – have suffered, according to Helen Dickinson of KPMG.
"The only reason the overall like-for- like figures for July were not negative was due to spending levels in the remaining sectors holding up," she noted.
"They said that July 2006 was the hottest on record and July 2007, the wettest. We are also seeing lower demand growth, given ongoing pressures on disposable incomes."
As a result of the current bleak situation the BRC is urging the Bank of England's monetary policy committee to postpone any further planned interest rate rises until well into the autumn.
It believes the Bank should wait for the most recent hikes to work their way into the economy before acting further.
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