The British Retail Consortium has attacked official retail sales statisticians for painting “an overly rosy view” of the stores sector’s performance.

ONS data released this morning showed sales fell 0.4 per cent last month and were up 2 per cent in the three months to March.

However, the BRC rejected the ONS’s claim that “underlying growth in retail sales remains robust”.

BRC director-general Stephen Robertson said: “Sales growth is far from robust. ONS’s own figures show non-food prices falling at the fastest rate for more than 20 years, showing it is taking deep and widespread price-cutting to tempt customers to buy anything other than essentials.”

The BRC’s Sales Monitor showed like-for-like sales fell in March for the first time in two years.

UK retail sales plummet in March