Britain's embattled retailers know all about slowing economic growth - and so do their shareholders. Many will have lost count of the number of trading statements and interim results they have seen littered with references to the "difficult", "challenging", "tough" or "deteriorating" high street conditions.

As City economists begin to revise down their economic growth forecasts - again - the nation's retail sector is likely to renew its calls for a fresh cut in interest rates, sooner rather than later.

And as the national statistics office published its gloomy numbers this morning, yet more evidence that retailers are hitting the buffers, and crossing their fingers in advance of what looks set to be a crunch Christmas period, emerged.

HMV, the books and DVD retailer that is primed to buy independent bookseller Ottakar's, saw almost 10 per cent wiped off its stock market value after it revealed a 9.2 per cent slide in same-store sales in the UK and Ireland.

Even the magic of JK Rowling's boy wizard Harry Potter was unable to help revive flagging sales at HMV's books subsidiary Waterstone's, where total sales fell by 4.6 per cent and underlying sales dropped by 6.4 per cent.

Shares in HMV were trading 23p pence lower at 15.25p going into the afternoon session, having lost 9.65 per cent of their value.

But reporting declining sales for a previous period is one thing. The problem is that retailers appear to see no signs of any imminent relief and (it's still September) are already beginning to talk up their Christmas efforts.

David Kappler, HMV's group chairman, told shareholders at today's annual meeting: "Conditions for high street retailing in the UK have been tough during our financial year to date, and there are few signs of an improvement."

Mr Kappler is not the only one to take a dim view of the retail environment, and to act aggressively to cut costs.

John Coleman, the chief executive of House of Fraser, the recently acquisitive designer brands retailer, talked of his company's "commitment to tight financial management" today as he was forced to report that losses had widened in the six months to the end of July and underlying sales had also fallen in the first eight weeks of the company's second half.

Even so, Mr Coleman described the increase in pre-tax losses before exceptionals to £4.4 million as a "robust performance" in the face of "an extremely difficult trading environment".

Although total sales in the first eight weeks of the second half of the year rose by 8.5 per cent, the underlying trend is for a comparative fall of 6.8 per cent, against what House of Fraser described as a "relatively strong" performance last year.

Mr Coleman joined the likes of Trevor Bish-Jones, the chief executive of Woolworths, in hoping that pre-Christmas cost-cutting will put his company in a stronger position ahead of the "all important" festive trading period.

Today's bleak news from Britain's retail sector, which follows grim groans from the likes of Next, B&Q and Dixons, was only marginally counterbalanced by an upbeat performance from Hennes & Mauritz, the owner of the Oxford Street H&M store.

H&M posted higher than expected profits for its third financial quarter this morning, thanks to an increase in sales. But then the group, Europe's largest fashion retailer, is markedly more international in its business and more insulated from the gloom gripping British shoppers.

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