Investing.com – Retail sales in the UK rose slightly more than expected in July, bolstering optimism over the British economy, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, UK Office for National Statistics said that retail sales increased by 0.3% in July from the prior month, compared to the previous 0.3% advance which was revised from an initial 0.6% decrease.
Analysts had expected July’s reading to increase by only 0.2%.
Year-on-year, retail sales increased 1.3% last month, which came in slightly lower than forecasts for growth of 1.4% and was also less than June’s 2.8% advance (2.9% before revision).
Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales and fuel, increased by 0.5% in July, compared to the prior 0.6% gain which was revised down from an initial increase of 0.9%.
Analysts had expected core retail sales to rise by just 0.2% last month.
Year-on-year, core retail sales rose 1.5% in July, compared to the previous month’s 2.8% increase (revised down from 3.0%) and the consensus forecast for a 1.3% advance.
Following the report, GBP/USD traded at 1.2889 from around 1.2887 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/GBP was at 0.9108 from 0.9109 earlier, while GBP/JPY traded at 141.78 compared to 141.79 before the report.
Meanwhile, European stock markets traded lower. London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.29%, the Euro Stoxx 50 lost 0.38%, France's CAC 40 traded down 0.27%, while Germany's DAX shed 0.23%.