Westfield Stratford City attracted 5.5 million visitors during the Olympics – almost 10% of the annual shopper target across Westfield’s two London shopping centres.

Posting its half-year update to the end of June, Westfield, which also owns the Westfield London centre in Shepherds Bush, said its two centres were on track to attract 60 million shoppers and £1.8bn worth of spending in the full year.

Westfield said it had enjoyed “unprecedented exposure to a global audience” over the last two weeks.

Sales figures for the centres and footfall levels for Westfield London were not revealed.

Footfall across London’s West End fell 4.5% during the first week of the Games, as visitors were told to avoid the capital. However, this improved as the event continued.

A Westfield spokesman told The Telegraph: “It is too early to determine what impact the Games had on trade generally. However, Westfield Stratford City has seen an increase in sales across different categories such as food, sportswear and Games merchandise.”

Westfield reported a 31% net profit increase to A$800m (£536m) in the first six months of the year.

The Australian business is now focusing on finding sites in Europe. Westfield co-chief executive Stephen Lowy said: “Italy is at the heart of the European crisis yet the retail demand we are seeing in pre-development in Milan is unprecedented,” according to the Financial Times.

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