Investing.com – Retail sales in the UK fell more than forecast in September, raising concerns over the British economy, official data showed on Wednesday.
In a report, UK Office for National Statistics said that retail sales decreased by 0.8% in September from the prior month, compared to the previous 0.9% advance which was revised from an initial 1.0% increase.
Analysts had expected September’s reading to fall by 0.1%.
Year-on-year, retail sales increased 1.2% last month, which was below forecasts for growth of 2.1%, and below August’s revision of 2.3%.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales and fuel, was down by 0.7% in September, compared to the prior 0.9% gain which was revised up from an initial increase of 1.0%.
Analysts had expected core retail sales to rise by just 0.1% last month.
Year-on-year, core retail sales rose 1.6% in September, compared to the previous month’s 2.6% increase (revised down from 2.8%) and was below the consensus of 2.4%.
Following the report, GBP/USD traded at 1.3143 rom around 1.3168 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/GBP was at 0.8969 from 0.8943 earlier, while GBP/JPY traded at 148.01 compared to 148.33 before the report.