Gap sales fell 7% in July, compared to the same period last year, to £550m ($924m).

Like-for-like sales were down 8 per cent across the fashion group compared to an 11 per cent drop in July last year.

International sales for Gap, including the UK, fell 4 per cent on a comparable basis, an improvement on the 9 per cent drop for the same period last year.

Gap chief financial officer Sabrina Simmons said: “We delivered July merchandise margins significantly above last year.”

She added: “We’re please with this range of earnings and our consistently healthy merchandise margins.”