27/07/2010 - Football and hot weather aids shops
The warmer weather and the World Cup helped the high street build up some momentum which has boosted optimism among retailers to its highest point for more than six years, the CBI said.
A 45% balance of retailers predict stronger sales in August, the best since June 2004, according to the business group's distributive trades survey.
In what was the best figure since April 2007, stronger sales volumes in July were reported by a far higher than expected 33% balance, with footwear stores, grocers and clothing leading the way.
In the weeks before the Ramadan festival begins on August 11 wealthy Middle Eastern shoppers are likely to boost London takings. The high street has been boosted by early discounts.
The survey measured sales between June 23 and July 14, and covered 131 companies. It comes after official figures for June's retail volumes also showed a higher than expected 0.7% rise over the month.
The CBI's head of economic analysis Lai Wah Co said the optimism among retailers was "promising" but added: "We still expect the recovery in overall consumer spending to be fairly restrained, however, given concerns about the impact of public spending cuts and weak prospects for real take-home pay in the coming year."
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