The housing slowdown has had less of an impact on Scottish retailers

Like-for-like sales grew by 1.8% in May and total sales rose by 5.5%, the Scottish Retail Consortium said.

Both figures were an improvement on April but were well down on the figures for last May when sales were buoyed by a strong housing market.

The UK figure showed a 2.4% decline in like-for-like sales in May and a 1.4% rise in total sales.

'Extremely unpredictable'

Fiona Moriarty, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: "Scotland's retailers have continued to erode their margins by using promotions and discounts in order to get customers through their doors in May.

"In some cases this has meant that volume of sales were higher than in the same period last year, but this has not translated directly into higher values for retailers.

"The weather was extremely unpredictable in May, with the one fine weekend giving some retailers a temporary boost, but generally, most are finding trading conditions tough at the moment".

Andrew McLaughlin, group chief economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said: "Scottish retail sales, while slowing, remain more resilient than in other parts of the UK."

The housing market north of the border has enjoyed a more moderate slowdown, in terms of both volume of activity and house prices Andrew McLaughlin Bank of Scotland

He said that the housing market may hold the key to understanding this "puzzle".

The "boom" in retail sales in recent years was led by a surge in spending on household goods, related to a strong housing market, he said.

Mr McLaughlin added: "At a UK level, total retail sales of household goods had been growing by an average 7% per annum over the past decade, but this has given way to growth of 1.8% in 2005.

"The housing market north of the border has enjoyed a more moderate slowdown, in terms of both volume of activity and house prices.

"This helps to explain the less pronounced slowdown in Scottish retail sales and provides some hope for the summer months ahead."