India, Jan. 17 -- UK retail sales declined unexpectedly even in festive season in December signaling that weak consumer spending weighed on economic growth in the last quarter of 2019.

Retail sales volume, including auto fuel, dropped 0.6 percent month-on-month, following a 0.8 percent decrease in November, data from the Office for National Statistics showed Friday.

This was the fifth consecutive month of no growth. Economists had forecast a monthly growth of 0.6 percent.

Excluding auto fuel, retail sales fell 0.8 percent, the same pace of decline as logged in November and in contrast to the expected growth of 0.8 percent.

Food store sales fell 1.3 percent, which was the largest drop since December 2016. At the same time, non-food sto...