Up to four blasts hit London's transport system yesterday, exactly two weeks after more than 50 people were killed in bombs on underground railway trains and a bus in the city.

　　Only one person was reported injured in the incidents, but economists feared they could deal a fresh blow to a fragile British economy relying on consumer sentiment.

　　"It is a matter of how long that shock stays in people's minds," said Grant Montague at Consultancy GfK Martin Hamblin, which publishes Britain's main consumer confidence barometer.

　　The Bank of England is worried a slowdown in consumer spending could hit economic growth and four of its nine-member policy committee voted for a 25-basis-point cut in interest rates in June, fuelling speculation a reduction is imminent.

　　Retail analysts SPSL reported shoppers were back out in force only days after the attacks two weeks ago. Customer footfall collapsed 77 percent on the day of the attacks, but was down only 21 percent only 48 hours later.

　　"I think the impact (from two weeks ago) was a lot more short-term than a lot of people thought," said Kate Ison, spokeswoman for the British Retail Consortium. "When it happens a second time it makes it all a lot more real and we don't yet know what the psychological impact will be."

　　But she added the latest incidents appeared to be on a much smaller scale. "There's not a sense of urgency and people aren't shutting up shop as they were before," she said.

　　Official data released yesterday also showed retail sales surged a surprising 1.3 percent in June, suggesting consumer spending is not as weak as some surveys have suggested.

　　Trevor Williams, economist at Lloyds TSB, said: "The damage to business will be pretty minimal, I'd have thought. However, these things might affect perceptions and might damage the tourist industry.''

　　Yesterday's blasts could not have come at a worse time for the travel industry, ahead of one of its busiest weekends of the year at the start of the school summer holidays.

　　London's airports, major airlines and train companies, however, said they were expecting business as normal.

　　Jeremy Binnie, an analyst with the London-based Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center, said there were key differences between yesterday's explosions and the previous blasts.

　　The latest ones did not take place at rush hour, they targeted more outlying stations, and "if there were bombs, they seem to have been duds," Binnie said.

　　"It seems much more amateurish in many ways," he said.

　　(Reuters)