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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/john-lewis-sales-under-pressure.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="John Lewis has revealed that sales declined for a second week in a row" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/min-john-lewis-sales-under-pressure.jpg" alt="John Lewis has revealed that sales declined for a second week in a row"/></a></p>
<p>John Lewis has revealed sales declined for a second week in a row as the high street bellwether added to fears over consumer confidence.</p>
<p>The department store chain, which has outperformed the retail sector in recent years, said sales excluding VAT were down 3.1% for the week to last Saturday. This followed a 4.4% drop in the previous seven days.</p>
<p>Including VAT, sales were down 0.9% on a year earlier, with four of the company&#8217;s 29 stores that have been open for more than a year increasing sales on a year ago &#8211; Cambridge, Trafford, Glasgow and Peter Jones in London.</p>
<p>Fashion sales were up 1.4% with home sales 0.3% stronger and electricals and home technology down by 5.1%.</p>
<p>Analysts said the latest figures were significant because they were the first in several weeks not to have been distorted by the weather.</p>
<p>The online business grew sales by 18.4% and Matthew McEachran, an analyst at Singer Capital Markets, said this suggested that the average store experienced a like-for-like sales decline of around 7.5%.</p>
<p>Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said the latest figures reinforced suspicions that consumers will be very cautious about their spending in 2011.</p>
<p>&#8220;Higher inflation &#8211; fuelled by January&#8217;s VAT hike to 20% &#8211; and muted earnings growth is increasingly squeezing purchasing power,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>John Lewis said its sales for the week including VAT were 14.5% higher than two years ago and that all but two of its shops increased trade on a year ago in the company&#8217;s financial year to the end of January.</p>
<p>Retail director Andrew Murphy said: &#8220;The year ahead promises to be even more testing, but we are budgeting for growth.&#8221;</p>
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