UK Retail Sales Rise 1.3 Percent in April

May 22, 2014 Share Print 0

British retail sales rose much more strongly than expected in April helped by robust food sales during the Easter holiday, official data showed on Wednesday.

Retail sales volumes jumped 1.3 percent on the month to show 6.9 percent growth on the year – its highest annual growth rate since May 2004.

Economists had expected retail sales to rise 0.5 percent on the month and for sales to be up 5.2 percent compared with April last year. Sales for March were also revised up significantly.

Easter this year fell in April but was in March in 2013.

Food sales jumped 3.6 percent in April from March and 6.3 percent on the year – its highest annual rise since January 2002 – due to better weather and sales promotions, as well as the later-than-usual Easter holiday, the Office for National Statistics said.

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.