London's shops get boost from Europe

Retailers in London shrugged off the worst of the credit crunch last month as visitors flooded in from Europe.

The London Retail Consortium said like-for-like sales in central London were up 2% on last year, compared with a 1.6% fall elsewhere in Britain.

Shops were boosted by large numbers of visitors from Europe, who were able to hunt down bargains thanks to the strength of the euro against the pound.

However, experts warned mass job losses in the City could hit sales in the coming months. It is feared 40,000 jobs could go in the next two years. The cull has already started, with Citigroup, UBS and Merrill Lynch laying off staff.

"The threat of large numbers of City job losses does not bode well," said Helen Dickinson, head of retail at KPMG. "Although there are significant differences in the performance of individual London retailers, they all continue to hope that shoppers in the capital will be more resilient to the spending slowdown."

British Retail Consortium director general Stephen Robertson said: "London's retailers continue to resist the effects of the more severe slowdown affecting the rest of the UK. Grim weather snatched away much of the boost that many retailers would normally expect from Easter but the increased attraction of London to eurozone visitors and a strong focus on delivering better-than-ever value for money are working to keep London sales growth positive."

The New West End Company, which represents stores on Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street, said the number of people going shopping rose 4.3% in March.