A sunny Easter in April has boosted retail sales in the UK.

According to new data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), shoppers came out in force and UK sales figures experienced a sharp rise during the sunny Easter.

Like-for-like sales rose by 4.6% in comparison to April 2008. A direct comparison is difficult to attain as last year Easter was in March and the weather last April was cold and wet as opposed to this year’s more temperate conditions.

Sales for both food and non-food products were bolstered by the warm weather. In the non-food category, clothing, footwear and outdoor leisure equipment experienced the best growth. Conversely, home and furniture goods sales still struggled.

Non-food non-store sales, including internet, mail order and telephone purchases, rose by 12.5% in April compared with sales one year prior.

Stephen Robertson, Director General of the BRC, said: “The best sales growth for three years is good news but let’s be cautious. A sunny Easter that fell in April this year is the key reason why overall sales are up compared with last year when Easter was in March and miserable.

“Following a tough winter, there’s some pent up demand but there’s no reason to think customers suddenly feel flush or eager to spend. With unemployment set to grow through the rest of the year, mounting job worries will hold back spending for some time.

“It would be great if the historically weak performance of the last twelve months was behind us but we shouldn’t celebrate yet.”

Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail at KPMG, added: “Consumers are remaining resilient to the prospects presented by a gloomy economic outlook and, for the moment at least, are not making a step change in reducing their spending.”