Mubasher: Retail sales in the UK declined 0.5% month-on-month in October, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Thursday.

This came on the back of a steep fall of 3% in household goods stores after solid sales growth in August and September.

In the third quarter of this year, UK retail sales rose by 0.4% from the previous quarter.

This marked a slowdown when compared with strong sales in summer when sales reached a high of 2.3% in the three-month period ended July.

On an annual basis, the volume bought in retail sales climbed 2.2%, helped by growth across all sectors, except for fuel which dropped 1.8% on year.

Despite a drop in total retail spending in online sales, the sector’s sales “as a total of all retailing” rose to 18% in October, from 17.7% in the previous month.

Textiles, clothing and footwear stores continued to account for a record proportion of online sales at 18.2%.

By 9:45 am GMT, the GBP/USD pair dropped 1.35% to $1.2816, while the EUR/GBP rose 1.39% to GBP 0.8826.