YEAR-on-year growth in the value of UK retail sales accelerated to 3.9% in July, from 2.9% in June, industry figures reveal.
The figures, published today by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), show the positive impact of warm weather on sales.
The BRC also highlights a boost to consumer sentiment in July from Andy Murray's victory at Wimbledon, and Chris Froome's success in the Tour de France.
It also cites the success of the British and Irish Lions in Australia, and the start of the Ashes cricket series as other factors which helped boost sales in July.
The birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's son, Prince George, was also viewed as having provided a boost to retailers.
The BRC said the sunny weather had boosted the food and fashion categories, while dampening demand for furniture and flooring, home accessories and house textiles.
Year-on-year growth in UK retail sales value in July was the best since February, when it was 4.4%.
And Helen Dickinson, director-general of the BRC, said that the year-on-year rise in retail sales value last month was the best recorded for any July since 2006.
However, last month's strong retail sales figures were achieved on the back of significant discounting.
The BRC and market researcher Nielsen have calculated that UK shop prices last month were down 0.5% on July 2012, the fastest annual pace of decline for six-and-a-half years.
Prices in the non-food category in July were down 2.1% on a year earlier, the BRC and Nielsen said at the end of last month. Food prices last month were 2.2% higher than last July, with the annual inflation rate in this category having fallen sharply recently.
Ms Dickinson said of the July sales figures: "This is a very solid... performance, the second-best month this year and better than we've seen in any July since 2006.
"It has been driven by the warm weather and retailers working hard to offer deep discounts and great offers to their customers, with the reduction in shop prices we reported for July translating into more generous spending in UK stores."
She added: "Food has performed very strongly, with summer barbecue ingredients and feel-good foods doing well during a month where the Lions, Murray, Chris Froome in the Tour de France and the start of the Ashes series all contributed to the positive summer feeling.
"Clothing has also had a very good month, which was down to good weather spurring summer fashion buys and some very good discounting."
David McCorquodale, head of accountancy firm and BRC survey sponsor KPMG's UK retail practice, said: "July was a golden month for retail sales and marks a return to form for British retailers. Hopefully this uptick in sales is another indication that the UK economy has turned the corner towards growth.
"Murray mania, summer sun and the arrival of the royal baby gave consumers that much-needed feel-good factor, encouraging them to leave caution behind and help retailers put in a champion performance."
However, while declaring the July figures would be a relief after last year's "washout summer" saw shoppers stay at home, he highlighted the extent to which sales had been driven by discounting.
Mr McCorquodale said: "Whether retailers have sacrificed too much margin to drive these sales remains to be seen."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article