Investing.com – Retail sales in the UK rose more than expected in November, 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 1.1% in November from the prior month, compared to the previous 0.5% gain which was revised from an initial 0.3% rise.
Analysts had expected November’s reading to advance by just 0.4%.
Year-on-year, retail sales rose by 1.6% last month, better than forecasts for a 0.3% increase and compared to October’s 0.3% decline.
Following the report, GBP/USD traded at 1.3452 from around 1.3447 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/GBP was at 0.8792 from 0.8789 earlier, while GBP/JPY traded at 151.72 compared to 151.76 before the report.
Meanwhile, European stock markets traded mostly lower. London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.23%, the Euro Stoxx 50 lost 0.31%, France's CAC 40 traded down 0.26%, while Germany's DAX shed 0.28%.