Britain’s love affair with shopping shows little sign of letting up, but interest in new clothes appears to be on the wane. Consumers spent an average of £6.7 billion (€8.5 billion) a week in the shops in February, the quantity of bought goods up 3.8 per cent on the previous year.

While there was a 0.4 per cent fall compared with the previous month, this was smaller than City analysts had expected after the typically bumper January sales month.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, the survey data company, said the "resilient" figures "provide welcome news that consumers remain in an upbeat mood so far this year".

But sales of clothing and shoes fell 2.8 per cent, extending the period of steady decline in the quantity and value of clothes bought. The Office for National Statistics noted that, when measured on a three-month to three-month basis, this has been the longest run of consecutive decreases since 1991.

Melanie Richard, head of retail at the ONS, said stores had also reported “sales of their new spring and summer collections were hit by the cold and wet weather last month”.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016