India, April 19 -- UK retail sales were unchanged on a month-on-month basis in March, defying expectations for a gain, preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics showed Friday.
Retail sales including automotive fuel grew 0.1 percent in the previous month. Economists were looking for a 0.3 percent gain for March. This was the weakest outcome since December, when sales shrunk 3.5 percent. Excluding auto fuel, retail sales decreased 0.3 percent, reversing a similar size gain from the previous month. This was the first decline in three months.
Automotive fuel and non-food stores sales volumes grew 3.2 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.
In March, automotive sales reached their highest index level since May 2022 and retailers...