Record Easter sales forecast for Britain

High street sales are expected to hit record highs, helped by low interest rates and fair weather.

Richard Hyman, analyst at retail consultancy Verdict, said he was expecting sales to be pretty good over the break and ahead of last year.

He said good weather would encourage shopping for DIY and gardening products, although it was not particularly conducive for visits to shopping malls.

Mr Hyman added: "The weather is always critical for the Easter weekend - it plays quite a big part in retail spending. During Christmas, even if the weather is awful, people still have to buy presents, but at Easter, you don't have to shop.

"But generally this weekend is looking to be pretty good. Retail has been remarkably buoyant so far this year, and the die's already been cast this weekend. The weather would have to be awful to prevent March from having been a pretty good month."

Retail sales figures have generally shown a robust picture this year, fuelled by low interest rates. February's figures showed the sharpest month-on-month increase for two years.

Mr Hyman said his forecasts suggests March will see sales 6% higher than the same month last year, adding: "Money is cheap, credit is cheap, so interest rates are probably the single most important driver."

He expects sales to slow somewhat this year as interest rates rise, but thinks the UK will still end 2002 with pretty low interest rates.

He added sales this weekend would almost definitely be better than last year, and the break was likely to see record sales.

Interest rates are expected to be held at 4% next week, following the Bank of England's monthly meeting. Economists are expecting the first rise to be in either June, July or August, although some think there is a chance rates could rise in May.