Tesco expected to report lowest UK sales growth for a decade

Tesco is set to reveal its worst UK sales results in more than a decade, as the slowdown continues to take its toll on retailers.

According to analysts polled by the Daily Telegraph, the grocer's third-quarter results tomorrow will show UK like-for-like sales growth, excluding fuel, likely to be just 1.9 per cent. This figure would be its worst performance since its annual results in 1992 to 1993, and would be a significant slowdown since the second quarter, when growth was at 4 per cent.

Tesco has suffered at the hands of the discount operators Aldi and Lidl, and it recently launched its own discount range in response. It has also been fiercely price cutting alongside competitors Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons.

Dresdner Kleinwort said its estimates of 2.5 per cent growth for Tesco in the UK during 2009 to 2010 "look particularly vulnerable".

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