Retail sales in Britain stagnated in August, countering expectations for a small increase, sales of clothing and exerted the greatest impact to the bottom, showed the official data on Thursday.
Analysts had predicted an increase of 0.1 percent per month and the Office for National Statistics said the August reading unchanged lowered the annual growth rate of retail sales to 2.1 percent from 2.9 percent in July.
Additionally, the previously reported increase in July, 0.4 percent was revised downward to an increase of only 0.2 percent.
The pound fell nearly half a cent against the dollar, as the figures reinforced expectations that the Bank of England will keep the ultra-loose policy for some time.
Last week, the central bank kept interest rates at a record low of 0.5 percent and said it would maintain its current program of asset purchases of 175,000 million pounds as it struggles to pull Britain out of the worst recession in decades.
Despite a sluggish final reading, sales in the three months to August rose 1.2 percent, the biggest increase since May 2008.
"It's an impressive performance given the weak economy," said Philip Shaw, economist at Investec.
The official measure of retail sales has been unusually strong during much of the year, prompting analysts to question the accuracy of the weakness of the survey data and complaints from retailers, of poor demand and the obligation to cut prices aggressively.
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