LONDON (AP) — Retail sales in Britain fell for the ninth time in ten months during March as demand for furniture slumped to its lowest level for at least nine years, a leading industry lobby group said yesterday.

In its monthly survey, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said like-for-like retail sales — those that exclude new stores and space — declined by 1.2 percent in March from the year before, when sales were depressed by extremely cold weather.

Though March's fall was a modest improvement on the 1.8 percent decline posted in February, the drop was bigger than the 0.7 percent anticipated. Like-for-like sales have fallen in nine of the last ten months.

When new stores and space are included, sales were 0.6 percent higher in March, up from 0.1 percent in February.