July's record heatwave did shopkeepers more harm than good.

Bumper sales of food, drink and skimpy clothes far outweighed lack of interest in other items from customers who stayed away from the shops altogether.

The British Retail Consortium said like-for-like retail sales were 3.4 per cent ahead of July last year - well above the 2.3 per cent gain in June. Including new floor space, total sales were 6.1 per cent higher.

But the BRC pointed out that July last year was an exceptionally poor month when two bomb attacks in London kept a large number of shoppers at home and sales fell by 1.9 per cent year on year.

"A lot of this growth, against a weak comparative a year ago was driven by the food sector, helped by the weather, and heavy discounting across many product categories," said Kevin Hawkins, the BRC's director general.

"Most other sectors struggled or had mixed fortunes. Talk of a general upturn in consumer spending is wide of the mark - even more so since the Bank of England increased interest rates."

They rose last week by a quarter of a per cent to 4.75 per cent.

The BRC noted clothing did well in the clearance sales, but homewares and indoor products suffered as people were reluctant to shop in the heatwave.

The Solihull-based specialist information company Footfall calculated that the total number of shoppers rose by 2.5 per cent between June and in July, the strongest increase this year.

Helen Dickinson, KPMG's head of retail, suggested otherwise. "The growth in total like-for-like sales in July continues the trend in the last couple of months, with discounting activity negating lower shopper numbers and driving positive gains in comparisons to 2005," she said.

"They say last month was the hottest July on record and, for once, the warm weather coincided with the timing of seasonal promotions, ensuring the clothing sector showed some positive gain.

"Once again, however, it was our desire for food and drink that was the driving force behind the positive results."

Howard Archer, an economist at Global Insight, looked ahead at the implications for interest rates.

"The Bank of England will see the on-going evidence that consumer spending has recovered from its early-year weak-ness as further justification for last week's interest rate hike," he said.

"Much attention will now be focused on how well retail sales hold up in August, following the interest rate hike.

"We suspect that consumer spending will be largely softer over the coming months as last week's interest rate hike adds to the significant headwinds already facing the consumer.

"These include soaring utility bills, elevated petrol prices, moderate earnings growth, an increasing tax burden, rising debt levels and serious pension concerns.

"Consequently, we expect growth to moderate over the coming months from the above-trend rate seen in the second quarter of this year, thereby diluting the need for further interest rate rises."