Britain's retail sales volume increased by 3.6 percent compared with June 2013 and by 0.1 percent compared with May 2014, said Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday.
In June 2014, all retail sectors recorded sales quantity increase year-on-year. The last time this was seen was in March 2012, said ONS.
In the three-month to June, the retail sales in quantity increased by 1.6 percent compared with the previous three months, registering the 16th consecutive period expanding, the longest period of sustained growth since November 2007, data showed. When compared with the same period of last year, it increased by 4.5 percent.
In amount spent term, retail industry's sales in June increased by 3.5 percent on year-on-year basis, and by 0.8 percent compare with May 2014, said ONS.
The amount spent online grew by 13.4 percent in June 2014 compared with June 2013, data also showed.
A day before, Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said in its survey report that 46 percent of respondents reported volumes rose in the three months to July, while 25 percent said they were down, giving a balance of plus 21 percent, which was significantly higher than the previous month's plus 4 percent.
"The retail sales expanded by 1.6 percent in the second quarter, which was the strongest quarterly pace of growth for over a decade. This reaffirms our belief that we will see GDP growth of around 0.9 percent in tomorrow's preliminary estimate for the second quarter," said John Bulford, economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club, in a note.
The Office for National Statistics of Britain will release the first estimation of the gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter on Friday.
"Rather than fueling their spending habits by saving less, as we saw for much of 2013, households are benefiting from rising disposable incomes, with the strength of employment growth playing a vital role," noted Bulford.
Samuel Tombs, Senior UK Economist at Capital Economics, also commented in an analysis piece: "Looking ahead, the prospect of further strong gains in employment, a gradual pick-up in wages and subdued shop price inflation due to the stronger pound suggests that further solid gain in real spending are likely over the rest of 2014 and beyond."
