RETAIL CONDITIONS REMAIN TOUGH DESPITE MARCH BOOST

RETAIL CONDITIONS REMAIN TOUGH DESPITE MARCH BOOST: Official retail figures released today (Friday) by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirm retailers benefited from increased sales in March compared with the same month a year earlier. Disregarding the exceptional circumstances that boosted fuel sales, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) says the lift was chiefly because of the early warm weather which encouraged consumers to buy summer clothes and things for the garden.