Retailers said today that high street sales were poor this month, despite some seeing improvements in demand.

The CBI distributive trade survey, which tracks monthly spending, showed that 36 per cent of retailers said their sales volume rose in the first half of March, while 35 per cent said they were lower.

The balance was an improvement on February's figures and stronger than analysts were expecting, but the retailers described sales levels as poor.

Ian McCafferty, economic adviser to the CBI, said: "The picture now is of subdued activity as consumers tighten their belts amid the general cooling of activity we are seeing across the whole economy.

Howard Archer, of Global Insight, said: "The CBI survey for March does little to change our view that consumer spending will be markedly softer over the coming months after a surprisingly robust start to the year."

However, Vicky Redwood, of Capital Economics, said that the outlook may not be quite as bad as the survey indicates because it is traditionally much more pessimistic than other indicators.

She said: "The UK’s CBI Distributive Trades survey points to very sluggish high street spending growth in March, it has recently been far more pessimistic than the official measure of sales growth .. and [this month] is particularly complicated by timing issues over Easter."

The +1 per cent balance on March sales compares with a -3 per cent reading for last month.

Analysts had predicted a reading of -5 per cent and retailers had forecast a balance of -2 per cent.

However, 29 per cent of retailers said March was poor for sales, compared with 15 per cent saying they were good.

Shoes and leather goods were the most in demand, grocery sales continued to grow and booksellers and stationers had a good month.

But sales of durable household goods shrank for the fifth consecutive month.

Explore Economics

• Autumn Budget 2007

• Budget 2008

• World Economic Forum

• The Times MPC

Times Recommends

• US stocks fall below 9,000 mark
• House price fall smallest in seven months
• Wary investors opt to keep cash in safes