High street sales continued to grow last month despite the rainy weather and distraction of the World Cup.

The monthly survey, by the British Retail Consortium and accountant KPMG, said like-for-like sales in June were 4 per cent ahead of June 2001 - which follows a 2.7 per cent jump in May's sales.

However the BRC said on a three-month basis the growth trend was slowing, down from 4.1 per cent in May to 3.1 per cent in June.