U.K. Retail Sales Beat Forecast, Pound Rises

The Great Britain pound strengthened today against the U.S. dollar and some other most-traded currencies after the retail sales rose more than expected, suggesting that Britain’s economic recovery is strengthening.

The total retail sales volume increased by 0.6 percent between April and May, while the experts expected only the 0.1 percent growth. The Britain’s policy makers pledged to perform the spending cuts in the emergency budget on June 22nd. Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, suggested that the slower economic growth might be even beneficent as it can help to rein the inflation.

The growing retail sales suggested that the economic situation in U.K. is better than it was previously considered. The Britain may emerge from the budget crisis largely unscathed after all.

GBP/USD traded near 1.4814 today as of 18:27 GMT after opening at 1.4728. EUR/GBP traded near its opening level of 0.8356.

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