Britain's retail sales fell by 0.6 percent in December 2019 comparing with the previous month, marking the fifth consecutive month of no growth, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Friday.

The quantity bought in food stores fell by 1.3 percent in December for the monthly growth rate, the largest fall since December 2016, said the ONS in a report.

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said on Twitter that "the 0.6 percent m/m (monthly) fall in retail sales in December takes the run of months without growth to five -- unprecedented since records began in 1970."

On the quarterly basis, in the three months to December 2019, the quantity bought in retail sales decreased by 1 percent when compared with the previous three months, said the report.

All sectors except household goods stores and fuel saw a decline in the quantity bought for the three-month on three-month movement, driven mainly by non-food stores at negative 1 percent, said the ONS.

The report is a first estimate of retail sales in volume and value terms, seasonally and non-seasonally adjusted. 

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