U.K. Retail Sales Declined More Than Forecast in February

U.K. retail sales dropped more than economists forecast in February after a surge the previous month when shoppers brought forward spending to beat a tax increase.

Sales fell 0.8 percent from January, when they jumped a revised 1.5 percent, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. The median forecast of 24 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was a 0.6 percent decline in February. Sales at department stores dropped the most in two years. From a year earlier, overall sales increased 1.3 percent.