Europe's warm autumn slows Zara's Q3 sales

London

INDITEX, the world's biggest clothes retailer and owner of Zara stores, reported a slowdown in sales growth in its third quarter on Wednesday as Europe's warm autumn kept shoppers away, although analysts pointed to a brighter end of the year.

Fashion retailers such as Next and John Lewis have already reported a hit from warmer-than-usual weather as shoppers passed on new winter ranges. Inditex's biggest rival, Sweden's H&M, will report results on Friday.

Inditex's sales between August and October rose six per cent to 6.3 billion euros (S$10.01 billion), in line with analysts' forecasts, against 10…