UK retail sales rebound in January

The rebound follows a month-on-month fall of 0.4% between November and December 2007.

The ONS said sales in predominantly food stores increased by 0.7% during January, while for predominantly non-food stores sales rose by 0.4%.

The underlying trend was also up.

In the three months from November to January sales volumes rose by 0.6% compared with the previous three months.

This follows 0.5% growth in the three months to December.

Three-monthly growth in sales volume was 0.1% for predominantly food stores, while no growth was reported for predominantly non-food stores.