Investing.com – Retail sales in the UK blew past forecasts in August, bolstering optimism over the British economy, official data showed on Wednesday.
In a report, UK Office for National Statistics said that retail sales increased by 1.0% in August from the prior month, compared to the previous 0.6% advance which was revised from an initial 0.3% increase.
Analysts had expected August’s reading to increase by just 0.2%.
Year-on-year, retail sales increased 2.4% last month, which beat forecasts for growth of 1.1% and was also stronger than July’s 1.4% advance (1.3% before revision).
Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales and fuel, increased by 1.0% in August, compared to the prior 0.7% gain which was revised up from an initial increase of 0.5%.
Analysts had expected core retail sales to rise by just 0.2% last month.
Year-on-year, core retail sales rose 2.8% in August, compared to the previous month’s 1.7% increase (revised up from 1.5%) and was double the consensus forecast for a 1.4% advance.
Following the report, GBP/USD traded at 1.3606 from around 1.3530 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/GBP was at 0.8828 from 0.8873 earlier, while GBP/JPY traded at 151.48 compared to 150.65 before the report.
Meanwhile, European stock markets traded with mixed signs ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement later on Wednesday. London’s FTSE 100 lost 0.33%, the Euro Stoxx 50 was unchanged, France's CAC 40 rose 0.10%, while Germany's DAX advanced 0.02%.