Small retailers in nearly every sector will feel the impact of the credit crunch, one industry body has claimed.

Richard Dodd, head of media and campaigns at the British Retail Consortium, explained that their latest figures indicate the value of like-for-like sales fell in March when compared to the previous year, the first time that this has happened since 2006.

He said: "It is affecting almost every sector apart from food, so everything from DIY and gardening, through to things like furniture, carpets, electricals and also clothing, in particular, has seen falls year-on-year."

Mr Dodd believes that this is because people are short of spare cash and want to save what little excess income they have.

Because of this they are restricting themselves to purchasing the essentials, he concluded.

Last week, the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies claimed that financial institutions are likely to be worst hit by the credit crunch.

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