Economists Say Fundamentals Strong Despite British Retail Sales Dip

British retail sales suffered an unexpected dip last month, wrong-footing economists who said rising wages and lower prices still pointed to strong prospects for consumer spending, a mainstay of the country’s growth.

Sterling slid half a cent against the dollar after the Office for National Statistics reported a 0.2 percent fall in June retail sales on Thursday, prompting traders to reconsider bets on a Bank of England rate rise before the end of the year.

Annual retail sales growth fell to its lowest in nine months at 4.0 percent, down from 4.7 percent in May and well below the forecasts of economists polled by Reuters.

The data adds to uncertainty about how strongly Britain’s economy is bouncing back from a weak patch at the start of the year, after figures last week showed an unexpected rise in the unemployment rate for the first time in more than two years.

Bank of England policy discussions released on Wednesday showed a growing number of policymakers were edging towards voting for a rate hike, and Governor Mark Carney said on Tuesday that this could come into focus around the turn of the year.

Policymakers are relatively bullish about the economic outlook for Britain, but are divided over the robustness of a recent pick-up in wages which is needed to sustain growth and return rock-bottom inflation to more normal levels.

Reuters

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Former Craig

Former Craig

Former Senior Market Analyst, UK & EMEA at OANDA
Based in London, Craig Erlam joined OANDA in 2015 as a market analyst. With many years of experience as a financial market analyst and trader, he focuses on both fundamental and technical analysis while producing macroeconomic commentary. His views have been published in the Financial Times, Reuters, The Telegraph and the International Business Times, and he also appears as a regular guest commentator on the BBC, Bloomberg TV, FOX Business and SKY News. Craig holds a full membership to the Society of Technical Analysts and is recognised as a Certified Financial Technician by the International Federation of Technical Analysts.