Annual growth in sales slowed to 6.6% from 7.0%

Bank of England has raised interest rates five times since November to cool a consumer spending boom that has fuelled Britain’s longest period of uninterrupted growth in at least 200 years.

As evidence mounts that a boom in house prices is waning, most economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect the benchmark rate, currently 4.75%, to peak at 5.25% or below.

“It is a real slowdown and it’s largely due to interest rates,” said Merrill Lynch European chief economist Ian Stewart.