Investing.com – Retail sales in the U.K. bounced back in April by a much larger than expected amount, bolstering optimism over the British economy, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, U.K. Office for National Statistics said that retail sales rose 2.3% in April from the prior month, compared to the previous 1.4% decline which was revised from a previous drop of 1.8%. That was its largest gain since January 2016.
Analysts had expected April’s reading to increase by just 1.0%.
Year-on-year, retail sales increased 4.0% last month, compared to forecasts for growth of 2.1%. March’s reading was upwardly revised to 2.0% from the initial 1.7% advance.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales and fuel, increased by 2.0% in April, compared to the prior 1.2% decline which was revised from an initial fall of 1.5%.
Analysts had expected core retail sales to rise by 1.1% last month.
Year-on-year, core retail sales rose 4.5% in April, compared to the previous month’s 2.8% increase (initially 2.6%) and the consensus forecast for 2.5% advance.
Following the report, cable reacted to the upside, breaking 1.30 for the first time since September 2016. GBP/USD traded at 1.3036 from around 1.2979 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/GBP was at 0.8544 from 0.8578 earlier, while GBP/JPY traded at 144.63 compared to 143.90 before the report.
Meanwhile, European stock markets traded lower. London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.95%, the Euro Stoxx 50 lost 0.43%, France's CAC 40 traded down 0.46%, while Germany's DAX shed 0.28%.