The UK retail sector posted its "worst sales growth this year" during August as London's Olympic Games failed to encourage consumer spending, according to new research.

Compared with August 2011, like-for-like sales were down 0.4 per cent and total sales were up 1.6 per cent. Excluding Easter, the growth figures are the lowest since November 2011.

British Retail Consortium (BRC) director general Stephen Robertson said: "There's no evidence here of any Olympic boost to retail sales overall.

"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."

Click here for more information from the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor for August 2012.