LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - British motorists rushed to buy fuel immediately after the start of the Iran war, pushing up total sales volumes for the country's retail sector by more than expected in March, official data showed on Friday.
Fuel sales leapt by 6.1% on the month as drivers headed for the pumps in much larger numbers than usual in the first few days of March after the start of the conflict on February 28, the Office for National Statistics said, using government data.
Excluding the COVID-19
pandemic period, it was the biggest monthly increase since January 2016, the ONS said.
Retail sales across the board rose by 0.7% in March.
Economists polled by Reuters had mostly expected a monthly increase of 0.1% in sales volumes.
Food sales fell by a monthly 0.8%, the biggest drop since August last year, the ONS data showed.
On Thursday, Britain's longest-running consumer sentiment index published by market research firm GfK fell to its lowest since October 2023 in March and suffered the biggest drop from one month to the next in a year.
Major British retailers have said uncertainty over the impact of the Iran war on shoppers is clouding their outlook and could hurt profits.
Food retailers, including Tesco and Sainsbury's, have said they are yet to see meaningful changes in consumer behaviour. But clothing chain Primark said that while March trading was encouraging, April has so far been soft.
(Additional reporting by James DaveyWriting by William Schomberg, editing by William James)
