Month-on-month retail sales in the UK stayed flat in March, undershooting consensus expectations of 0.3% growth.
Year on year, sales added 0.8% after falling 0.3% in February.
Commenting on today’s data print, ONS senior statistician Heather Bovill said: “Retail sales registered no growth in March. Hardware stores, furniture shops, petrol stations and clothing stores all reported a rise in sales.
“However, these gains were offset by falling food sales and in department stores where retailers say higher prices hit trading.
“Looking at the longer-term picture, across the latest three months retail sales increased after a poor Christmas.”
Danni Hewson, AJ Bel'sl head of financial analysis, added: “Households have become more switched on to their personal finances over the past couple of years as the cost-of-living crisis stretched budgets to the limit.
"Inflation may have cooled significantly and the first of those National Insurance cuts has made it into workers’ pay packets, but people are still feeling the pinch.
“The big push to get more people back in offices coupled with train strikes and lengthening days has pushed people back into their cars and more frequently to the forecourt.
"With more people on the roads, footfall in towns and cities has been boosted but the end of post-Christmas sales has meant less of those shoppers ended up in department stores."