Retail sales 'hurt by Olympics' in August

Retail sales fell 0.4% on a like-for-like basis from the same month last year, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
Excluding Easter, it was the weakest month since November.
"The feel good factor from the Olympics failed to inspire spending," the BRC said.
In particular, online shopping grew 4.8% in August, the lowest increase since the BRC started collecting the data in October 2008.
"There's no evidence here of any Olympic boost to retail sales overall," said BRC director general Stephen Robertson.
"Hot weather and the Olympics did help sales of party food and drink but that was more than offset by a really weak performance for non-food goods."
Shops in central London saw a sharp drop in visitors during the Olympic Games.
The BRC acknowledged this, but said that the net effect of the Games was minimal as "lower footfall in London was offset by a better performance in the rest of the country".
In terms of fashion, the autumn-winter ranges in womenswear did not attract many fans, the BRC said.
But women's footwear did attract more fans than men's shoes.
@'BBC'