Westfield Group has released its first quarter update for the period ending 31 March 2011, confirming that there’s continued solid conditions in Australia.

The group also said that sales in the US and UK are improving.

Retail sales growth 1.6 per cent in Australia through the quarter, 0.3 per cent in NZ, 5.4 per cent in the US, and 19.8 per cent in the UK, based on Westfield's London site.

For the 2011, Westfield expects to commence between $750 million to $1 billion of new developments.

During the quarter, it commenced $490 million of new projects with $320 million was used for the development into Fountain Gate while $170 million was spent on smaller projects in the US, UK and Australia.

Westfield has also upgraded its development forecast to to between $1.25 billion and $1.5 billion in both 2012 and 2013.