The unusually cold and snowy weather kept shoppers away from the high street last month and retail sales suffered their biggest quarterly fall in a year.
Sales of petrol plummeted, while food and clothes shopping also suffered, but economists are optimistic that the better weather has drawn consumers back to the shops this month.
The Office for National Statistics said that retail sales volumes fell 1.2% in March compared with February. Economists had only been expecting a fall of 0.5%.
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