LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Sainsbury's, Britain's second biggest supermarket group, on Wednesday kept its profit guidance for the full year after reporting a 7.4% rise in underlying sales for the key Christmas quarter.

The group, which has a 16% share of Britain's grocery market, trailing only Tesco, said it still expected 2023/24 underlying pretax profit of between 670 million pounds and 700 million ($852-$890 million) pounds versus the 690 million pounds made in 2022/23.

Sainsbury's said third quarter to Jan. 6 grocery sales rose 9.3%, with stronger growth in volume, or number of products sold, offsetting lower inflation.

However, general merchandise sales fell 0.6%, while clothing sales fell 1.7%.

Sainsbury's strong performance in food contrasts with

industry data

, published on Tuesday, showing lacklustre UK retail sales around Christmas across the wider market which may add to concerns that the economy has tipped into a mild recession, less than a year before a

likely national election

.

British shoppers have had to contend with high inflation and the Bank of England raising interest rates to a 15-year high of 5.25% in response to the jump in prices. (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Kate Holton)