Retail sales rise after bad weather

London: British retail sales rose almost four times as much as economists forecast in January as consumer spending rebounded after the coldest December in a century.

Sales gained 1.9% from the previous month, when they fell a revised 1.4% as snow kept Britons from shopping, the Office for National Statistics said in London.

The gain was the biggest since February 2010 and exceeded the 0.5% median forecast of 22 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.