By Jason Douglas and David Hodari

LONDON--British retail sales rebounded in July following a soft June, fueled by buoyant sales of food and drink during the soccer World Cup.

The pickup offers a tentative sign that Britain's consumer-led economy entered the third quarter on a strong footing.

Sales in July were 0.7% higher than in June and 3.5% higher than a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday. That was a better performance than the 0.2% monthly growth economists polled by The Wall Street Journal were expecting.

The rise was driven by sales of food and drink as well as sales online, which offset a decline in sales at department stores and a fall in gasoline sales.

The U.K. economy shook off a poor start to the year to grow 0.4% in the second quarter. The expansion was driven by consumer spending, which has broadly held up in recent years despite uncertainty surrounding the country's looming exit from the European Union and high inflation.

Write to Jason Douglas at Jason.Douglas@wsj.com and David Hodari at David.Hodari@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 16, 2018 04:47 ET (08:47 GMT)

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