The outlook is poor for retail sales growth in February

The Opera Solutions Retail Predictor for Retail Week showed that growth is expected to fall back to 0.1% in March, behind a 10-year average of 3.2%.

Opera executive director and Europe lead Ray Eitel-Porter said the outlook for the first half of 2013 remains downbeat following the administrations of Blockbuster, HMV and Jessops.

He said: “With a number of big high street names going into administration, the retail sector in the UK seems to be contracting.”