The Great Britain pound rose against the US dollar and the euro today thanks to improving retail sales, though analysts were not entirely optimistic.
The Confederation of British Industry released a retail sales survey that showed a reading of +9% for February, up from -8% in January. Furthermore, the reading was above the analysts’ median estimate of +5%. Yet not the entire report was positive as Ben Jones, principal economist at the CBI, voiced concern about the impact of rising inflation on consumer demand, saying:
The rebound in retail sales suggests that some of the recent gloom about a slump in consumer demand at the start of 2017 may be overdone. However, retailers remain cautious about their prospects, expecting fairly tepid growth in sales volumes next month against a backdrop of rising inflation that is likely to erode householdsâ purchasing power through the course of the year.
GBP/USD edged up from 1.2443 to 1.2491 as of 13:28 GMT today. EUR/GBP dropped from 0.8480 to 0.8461.
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