High level of consumer confidence likely to boost UK retail sales in March

UK March's retail sales figures (09.30 BST) should show that retail spending is still growing strongly. 

The BRC's measure of annual growth in like-for-like sales values picked up from 0.2% to 3.2% in March, and while the survey may have been boosted by the earlier timing of Easter this year, the high level of consumer confidence points to another strong result. 

"We expect a monthly rise in the official measure of retail sales volumes of 0.5% in March. This would leave the quarterly growth rate in sales at a strong 1.3% in Q1." - said Capital Economics