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UK retail sales slip unexpectedly in June, Q2 soft

LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) - British retail sales suffered an unexpected dip last month as consumers bought fewer household goods, pushing the annual rate of spending growth for the quarter to its lowest in more than two years.

Retail sales volumes dropped by 0.2 percent in June to show just 4.0 percent growth on the year, the Office for National Statistics said, the slowest annual growth since September 2014 and undershooting almost all economists' forecasts.

The ONS said the annual growth rate was still "strong", but the numbers may raise questions about how robustly Britain's economy -- which relies heavily on consumer demand -- is bouncing back from a slowdown in the first three months of 2015.

For the second quarter as a whole, the volume of goods bought was up 0.7 percent from the previous quarter compared with a rise of 0.9 percent in the three months to March, the weakest calendar quarter since the third quarter of 2014.

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Stripping out an adjustment for falling prices, retail spending in the second quarter was up just 1.3 percent on a year earlier, the weakest annual growth for any calendar quarter since the first three months of 2013.

Industry data released before the official numbers had been mixed. The Confederation of British Industry had reported a sharp slowdown in sales growth after a bumper May, while the British Retail Consortium reported some of the fastest annual growth in spending in two years.

The BRC figures had been boosted by spending late in June and into early July, as warm weather late in June boosted spending on outdoors items and stores started to discount clothes earlier in the year than in 2014.

Thursday's official data showed some similarity, with clothing sales volumes more robust than other sectors such as household goods and furniture, which dragged on demand.

Economists have said the overall picture for consumer spending in 2015 should be rosy, with falling prices for many goods and rising disposable income. Official data last week showed the fastest wage growth in more than five years. (Reporting by David Milliken and Andy Bruce)