UK retailers given hope of ‘green shoots of recovery’ after Easter pickup

The value of retail sales was up by 3.5% in March on a year earlier, according to the monthly sales monitor from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG. Photograph: travelibUK/Alamy

An early Easter boosted consumer spending in March and gave Britain’s retailers their best month in more than two years, according to a report.

Prompting hopes that the retail sector might be emerging from a protracted soft patch, the latest snapshot of spending in shops and online showed the value of sales above the current inflation rate for the first time since the early days of the cost of living crisis.