Warmer weather and the World Cup generated momentum on the high street - which has boosted optimism amongst retailers to its highest level in six years.
The prospect of the creation of graduate retail jobs looks strong after the positive analysis from the CBI's distributive trades survey, which shows a 45% balance of retailers predict stronger sales next month, the best since June 2004.
Stronger sales volumes in July were reported by a far higher than expected 33% balance, with footwear stores, clothing and grocers leading the way to produce the best figures since April 2007.
With the Ramadan festival beginning on August 11 wealthy Middle Eastern shoppers are likely to boost London takings. The high street has also been buoyed by early discounts.
The survey measured sales between June 23 and July 14, and covered 131 companies. It comes after official figures for June's retail volumes also showed a higher than expected 0.7% rise over the month.
The CBI's head of economic analysis Lai Wah Co said the optimism among retailers was "promising" but added: "We still expect the recovery in overall consumer spending to be fairly restrained, however, given concerns about the impact of public spending cuts and weak prospects for real take-home pay in the coming year."
