Clothing drives sales up.

RETAIL sales volumes are growing at their fastest annual rate since May last year with shoppers of clothing driving the figures forward.

October's sales were 0.4% ahead of an upwardly-revised September figure and 3.4% ahead of the same month last year - the biggest year-on-year rise since May 2008 at the beginning of the recession.

The figures showed sales volumes for clothing and footwear stores 10.7% higher than a year ago, buoyed by half-term shopping and Halloween celebrations. Annual growth in non-food retailing reached 3.5% compared with 1.6% across food stores, the ONS said. The biggest year-on-year increase came from non-store retailing and repair. This category, which includes online giants such as Amazon, saw sales volumes up 15.8% on October last year.

The ONS said there was anecdotal evidence of shoppers bringing forward online purchases due to fears of disruption from the postal strike.

Last month's retail sales data showed that, by value, sales also rose by 0.4% between September and October and by 3% year-on-year to pounds 22.4bn. The average weekly value of sales was pounds 5.6bn.

There was more evidence of falling inflation and cost cutting on the high street, with the ONS estimating that prices fell 0.4% year-on-year in October. While October's month-on-month rise in volumes was slightly below the 0.5% expected in the market, economists said the figures were encouraging.

Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, said: "October's UK retail sales figures confirm that high street spending is still holding up reasonably strongly ."