UK retailers report sales drop, biggest cutback in orders on record: CBI

LONDON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - British retailers this month reported the biggest drop in sales since April and they cut orders with their suppliers by the most since records began in 1983, a Confederation of British Industry survey showed on Thursday.

The CBI's headline distributive trades balance, which measures activity compared with a year earlier, fell to -55 to -48 in August.

"Retailers reported a steep fall in annual sales volumes in September, with some firms attributing the deterioration to poor consumer sentiment," said Martin Sartorius, lead economist at the CBI.

"The persistent sales downturn appears to have prompted retailers to cut back on order volumes at a survey-record pace."

The CBI said it hoped new Prime Minister Andy Burnham's pledge to boost growth "in every postcode" would include lower property taxes for high-street retailers

• Wholesalers and the motor trade also reported deteriorating sales

• Retailers' expected sales volumes for August fell to -37 from -22

• CBI retail data has been persistently more downbeat than that from the British Retail Consortium and the Office for National Statistics

• ONS retail sales data last week showed 2.7% annual sales volume growth excluding fuel in the year to June

• The CBI survey was based on responses from 46 retail chains and 71 wholesalers between August 27 and September 14

(Reporting by Andy Bruce; editing by suban Abdulla)