March was the second worst month for trade since crisis began

Despite there having been a late surge in tourists over Easter with holiday makers in the UK and Northern Europe desperate to get away from the freezing weather, it failed to boost takings on the high streets.

Pimeco's latest survey of its members has discovered that last month was given a trading rating of 3.6 points out of a maximum of ten.
Just .2 points above November's rating and seven points below the monthly average for the past year.
Pimeco sources said that the results are very worrying considering Easter week fell at the end of the month. “It is a shame that Easter failed to reactivate trading on the high street,” Pimeco said in a statement.
Only six percent of traders claim that they did more business last month than in March 2012.
24 percent said takings were about the same while 68 percent said that takings were down and 54 percent claimed that takings were worse than during February.