John Lewis's sales echo wider retail woes with more than 3% fall

Department store's figures down from last August, as high street sales saw biggest fall since height of financial crisis

John Lewis has reported a fourth week of falling sales in the latest sign that retailers endured a grim month in August.

The department store said sales for the week ending 29 August were 81.7m, down 3.4% compared with last year. They fell 5.9% in the previous week and were 3% lower over the four weeks to 29 August.