Fashion retailer H&M saw sales rise during its first quarter, as the ongoing effects of Covid-19 began to ease.

But the outlook for the world's second-biggest fashion retailer, which has stores in Gloucester and Cheltenham, looks more uncertain, due to the closure of its Russian stores and the economic fallout from the war in Ukraine, as reported by Retail Gazette.

Worldwide sales rose six per cent in March, compared with 23 per cent growth in the three months to February, but these figures were still down 11 per cent from two years earlier, just before the pandemic hit.

Analysts expect H&M to report a pre-tax profit of £85.4 million for its first quarter. But H&M said that sales and profits for the quarter were still being hit by the effects of Covid-19 in many of its major markets.

Like many retailers, H&M announced last month that it would be temporarily closing its stores in Russia. The country was H&M's sixth-biggest market, with four per cent of sales in the final quarter of 2021.

H&M was also hit last year by a sharp drop in demand in China, following the company raising concerns about workers' rights in the Xinjiang cotton growing province. China had also accounted for around four per cent of H&M's total sales.