Clothing and footwear hit by January lull
Scottish retail like-for-like sales were 0.6 per cent lower last month than at the same time last year, the first decline since September 2000.

The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) said that total sales grew by only 2.3 per cent in January, the weakest growth since March 2000. According to the SRC, once the festive Sales had finished, consumers tightened their spending levels to pre-November 2005 levels.

Most of January's decline came from non-food sales, which fell 1.2 per cent, with clothing and footwear hit particularly hard.

'While the Christmas figures were a welcome boost, we have now returned to the reality of what can only be seen as a difficult set of trading circumstances,' said SRC director Fiona Moriarty. 'The first half of January was driven largely by sales and discounting. The second half of the month saw consumer confidence return to a more cautious level and little interest shown by shoppers in the spring lines now arriving.'

The Royal Bank of Scotland group chief economist Andrew McLaughlin said: 'January offered further confirmation of a much weaker trend in like-for-like sales versus total sales. This will lead retailers to redouble their efforts to manage costs lower in 2006.'

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