The Great Britain pound advanced today, rising for the fourth straight session versus the US dollar, as growth of retail sales exceeded forecasts by more than three times, supporting the view that the nation’s economy is strong enough to continue expansion with tighter monetary policy.
Britain’s retail sales grew as much as 1.7 percent in February from the previous month, topping the analysts’ estimate of 0.5 percent. Tomorrow’s reports are expected to show a fall of the current account deficit and stable growth of the UK economy. The positive data supports the outlook for an interest rate hike from the Bank of England next year.
The positive macroeconomic fundamentals and the tightening bias of policy makers in the United Kingdom contrast to poor data and talks about monetary stimulus in the eurozone. This means that the sterling may gain additional attractiveness as a refuge from Europe’s problems.
GBP/USD advanced from 1.6581 to 1.6607 and GBP/JPY went up from 169.16 to 169.72 as of 22:16 GMT today. EUR/GBP tumbled from 0.8309 to 0.8272.
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