Retail sales fell for only the second time this year as wet weather led to a surprise 1.2% drop, official figures show.

It’s a steep fall from growth of 0.6% in June, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

A contraction of 0.5% had been forecast.

Growth in how much people were buying was recorded in all months this year except for March, which the Met Office said was the wettest in 40 years.

July similarly had high rainfall. Parts of the North West – including Greater Manchester and Merseyside – had their wettest-ever July.

Lancashire was the wettest, recording 234.6mm of rainfall last month.

As a result people were drawn to online sales which grew to the highest proportion of all retail sales since the pandemic month of February 2022. Last month 27.4% of retail sales took place online, up from 26% in June.

Retail sales figures are important as household consumption is the largest expenditure across the UK economy.