Investing.com – Retail sales in the U.K. posted a stronger increase than expected last month, official data showed on Friday.
In a report, U.K. Office for National Statistics said that retail sales rose 2.3% in January, from the prior -1.4% drop whose figure was revised down from the original -0.1% decrease.
Analysts had expected retail sales to rise only 0.8% last month.
Year-on-year, retail sales increased 5.2%, compared to December’s 2.3% gain which was revised down from the initial gain of 2.6%.
Consensus had forecast a 3.6% rise.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales, advanced 2.3% on the month, from the prior -1.3% drop in December whose figure was revised down from -0.9%.
Analysts had expected core retail sales to rise 0.7% last month.
Year-on-year, core retail sales rose +5.0% in January, up from the previous month’s 1.8% increase (revised down from 2.1%) and compared to the consensus forecast of a 3.5% advance.
In an immediate reaction to the news, the pound pulled back and broke through the 1.43 level against the dollar.
Specifically, GBP/USD fell 0.4% to 1.4277, compared to 1.4319 before the release.
EUR/GBP rose 0.2% to 0.7763, after trading earlier at 0.7744.
GBP/JPY dropped 0.8% to 161.11, as opposed to the prior cross at 161.87.