Blog

Retail Sales Miss Expectations

• Posted by currencies in Bank of England, Brexit, Currency, Dollar, Economy, EUR, GBP, Sterling, UK, Uncategorised
• April 19, 2018
• No Comments

UK retail sales recorded their biggest quarterly fall in a year during the three months to March. We expected as much as the weather played a big part, keeping consumers at home.

Retail sales volumes in March were 1.2 percent lower than the month before.

For the first quarter, sales volumes dropped by 0.5 percent compared with the last three months of 2017, their biggest quarterly fall since the first quarter of 2017.

This is likely to trim gross domestic product growth in the first quarter by 0.03 percentage points, the ONS said.

BoE is likely to stick to its expected rate hike in March – however, this puts future rate rises at risk.