Early Easter boosts March retail sales

The early Easter bank holiday weekend provided a small uplift to retail sales last month, despite a continuous year-on-year decline in online sales.
The latest figures from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG show that sales edged up 3.5% year-on-year in the five weeks to 30 March, compared to a 5.1% in 2023.
Food sales jumped 6.8% over the three months to March, against a growth of 8.5% last year.
Total non-food sales came under pressure, dropping 1.9% year on year over the three months comp