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UK retail sales maintain steady growth in March - CBI

Shoppers walk along Oxford Street in central London, February 22, 2015. REUTERS/Neil Hall

LONDON (Reuters) - British retail sales maintained steady growth in the first part of this month despite rising inflation pressures for stores and consumers, the Confederation of British Industry said on Thursday. After official retail sales data rebounded sharply in February after two months of weakness, the CBI said its members reported continued strength in March, though sales still remained weaker than normal for the time of the year. The CBI said its headline retail sales balance held at February's +9, bucking economists' expectations in a Reuters poll for it to weaken to +5. Retailers expected growth to pick up further in April, but for now sales growth remained below seasonal norms - and their weakest on that basis since July, the month after Britain voted to leave the European Union. Sterling slumped in the wake of the Brexit vote, which is now feeding through into higher import prices for retailers and consumers. "Retailers continue to be squeezed by rising cost pressures on the one hand, and intense competition on the other, which will limit their ability to raise prices," CBI economist Anna Leach said. "With household spending growth set to slow as inflation rises, retailers seem likely to remain under pressure through this year," she added. (Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Alistair Smout)