By CountingPips.com
Retail Sales data was released today out of the United Kingdom and showed that sales rose by less than expected in December. The UK retail sales data, released by the U.K. Office of National Statistics, advanced by 0.3 percent in December following a decrease of 0.3 percent in November. On an annual basis, retail sales increased by 2.1 percent
December’s sales data failed to meet the market forecasts, which were predicting that sales would increase by 1.1 percent to register an annual increase of 3.0 percent. The sales level was disappointing because of the potential for Christmas holiday shopping to boost retail sales and the opportunity for consumers to take advantage of a 15 percent VAT rate before it returned to 17.5 percent in January.
On a quarterly basis, the U.K. retail sales increased by 0.7 percent for the fourth quarter 0f 2009 from the third quarter.
Contributing to the increase in retail sales for December was a gain of 0.3 percent in predominantly food stores while predominantly non-food stores registered a gain of 0.1 percent for the month. On the year through December, predominantly food stores advanced by 2.8 percent over the December 2008 level while predominantly non-food stores increased by 0.7 percent.
British Pound Sterling falls in Forex Trading versus majors.
The British pound has traded lower today in forex trading against the other major currencies following the retail sales data. The pound has fallen versus the U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, New Zealand dollar, Australian dollar and the Canadian dollar.
The pound has declined approximately 75 pips versus the US dollar today as the GBP/USD trades at the exchange rate of 1.6123 at 11:11 am EST in the U.S. trading session after opening the day at 1.6199 (00:00GMT). The GBP/USD has touched a lowpoint of 1.6077 today.
The euro has advanced over 60 pips today versus the pound and looks to make it two straight gaining days after declining last week and the first three full days of this week. The pound has also declined by over 100 pips versus the Swiss franc and New Zealand dollar, by approximately 130 pips against the Japanese yen and by over 150 pips versus the Australian dollar.
Against the Canadian dollar, the pound has fallen by approximately 5 pips from the 1.7020 opening rate to trading at the exchange rate of 1.7015 CAD per GBP.
EUR/GBP 1-Hour Chart – The Euro gaining today against the British Pound for a second day in forex trading after the EUR/GBP had been declining since the January 12th high exchange rate of 0.9028. Today the pair has advanced on the pound’s weakness to extend above the 100-hour simple moving average in red.
