March retail sales fell 1.2% due to beastly weather

ONS blames 7.4% decline in petrol sales on ‘beast from the east’, which dragged down sectorRetail sales fell steeply in March owing to a slump in petrol sales when the “beast from the east” hit Britain.Volume of sales fell 1.2% in March from February, with petrol sales down 7.4%, the Office for National Statistics said. The ONS blamed the slump on the cold spell, when large parts of the UK were brought to a standstill by heavy snow and bitter cold weather. Analysts had be