Annual growth in the value of UK retail sales slowed last month to just 1% - the weakest year-on-year movement since April 2005 - according to industry figures today which highlight growing financial pressure on consumers.

Although the year-on-year growth reported for this April by the British Retail Consortium is down only slightly on the 1.1% figure recorded for March, it is way adrift of the 4.9% growth seen in January. It is even further behind the 9.8% annual increase seen in April 2006.

The BRC survey adds to a raft of evidence pointing to a sharp slowdown in UK economic growth.

However, inflationary pressures are preventing the Bank of England from moving fast or aggressively in cutting UK interest rates in response to the rapid weakening of the economy.

The BRC chooses to focus on like-for-like sales, which indicate how retailers are performing. Its total sales figures give a better measure of how consumer spending as a whole is faring.

On a like-for-like basis, stripping out the beneficial impact of the net expansion of retail space, sales in April were down 1.5% on the same month last year.

The BRC said the clothing and footwear sectors put in their worst performances for eight years on this basis, with big drops, while sales of furniture and larger homewares were down on April 2007 in spite of continued discounting and promotions.

Sales in March were down 1.6% on the same month of 2007 on a like-for-like basis.

Stephen Robertson, BRC director-general, said: "This is the first time in three years we've had two months in a row of year-on-year falls in like-for-like sales - further evidence that hard-pressed customers are really watching the pounds.

"With higher fuel and utility bills eating away at people's spare cash, they are concentrating on essentials like food. Despite heavy discounting, clothing and footwear were at their weakest for at least eight years and more expensive housing-related goods continue to struggle."