Sales of fuel were down by over 13% in April in marked contrast to the panic-buying in March in anticipation of a strike by tanker drivers.

If the fall in petrol sales is ignored, total other retail sales volumes decreased by 1% giving an annual decline to date of 1.1% which confounded analysts who were expecting a rise of about the same value. The British Retail Consortium [BRC] index was even worse showing sales decline by 3.3%.

According to the ONS even food sales in April only increased by a paltry 0.1% compared with 2011, the smallest year-on-year growth the smallest growth for over 20 years possibly due to food price inflation being 3.7%.

In Brighton retail sales fell by 1.36% which is significantly better than the ONS national benchmark.