Hot weather, which helped food sales, and price inflation narrowly trumped uncertainty over the prospects for Brexit and an increasing squeeze on incomes to keep high street sales rising last month.
However, the rate of increase slowed markedly. Retail sales grew by 0.2% in August on a like-for-like basis compared with the year before, the British Retail Consortium said. That is down from a 1.3% rise in the same month last year and a 0.5%t rise in July.
There was a decline in non-food sales, as consumers held off from making purchases that were not essential.
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