High street sales dropped 0.4 percent in September, causing alarm over the strength of consumer spending. Analysts had expected sales to rise 0.3 percent, and blamed a rise in utility prices, less discounting and higher interest rates for the downturn. Despite overall results being 3.8 percent higher than 12 months ago, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) lowered the rate of annual retails sales growth from 4.4 percent in August to 3.2 percent. Consumers are believed to be cutting back drastically following higher spending during the World Cup and the August bank holiday. New data has also shown that mortgage lending is experiencing a slowdown, due to the threat of interest rate increases. However, the CEBR does not believe the decline in sales will continue, with consumer spending generally on the upswing. More likely, utility costs and rising unemployment on the one hand and economic growth on the other will result in more volatility in monthly retail sales than last year.
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