Shops recover from a bad start to year

High Street sales recovered strongly last month, but only after a dismal start to the year.

Official figures today showed that retail sales, which includes petrol, rose by 2.1% in February — the biggest monthly increase since May 2008.

However, January was much worse than originally thought with sales down by 3% rather than the 1.8% decline originally reported, as shoppers and drivers avoided venturing out in the snow.

Analysts said the February figures were encouraging, but they did not offset the sharp decline seen in January.

The rise in VAT from 15% to 17.5% and continuing concerns about job losses and the economy have hit demand, they warned.

Alan Clarke of BNP Paribas said: "It snowed in January and that stopped people going shopping, it stopped people driving, and guess what, when it all thawed people went shopping again and people started driving their cars again.

"Look through the volatility of the last two months and the year has got off to a pretty bad st