Women's wear retailer PAS Group has warned underlying earnings will fall as much as 48 per cent in the December-half despite a rebound in retail sales.

PAS, which owns the Black Pepper, Review and JETS brands and supplies major chains such as Myer, Target, Big W and Kmart, said like-for-like retail sales rose 1.2 per cent in the six months ending December, despite the bushfires, inclement weather  and weak foot traffic in shopping centres.