Retail sales fall as squeezed households cut food spending Business

Heather Bovill, ONS deputy director, said: “Feedback from supermarkets suggested customers were spending less on their grocery store, due to the rising cost of living.”

April sales growth was also cut sharply from 1.4% to 0.4%, raising the specter of a slowdown in consumer spending tipping Britain into a contraction in the second quarter.

Emma-Lou Montgomery of Fidelity International said: “As the prices of food and even the most basic goods rise dramatically, many consumers are already adopting more defensive spending behaviors, such as self-imposed payment limits. .

The decline was only marginally better than economists feared, with City’s consensus pointing to a 0.7pc drop.

This comes on top of a string of dire economic numbers for May, which also included higher than expected borrowing and a new 40-year high for headline inflation.

Sales in supermarkets fell 1.5%, while sales of tobacco, alcohol and other beverages fell 4%.