London: British retail sales rebounded strongly last month despite Brexit jitters, official data showed, sparking a spike in the pound.
Retail sales rallied 1.4 per cent in February after a drop in January when rising food and fuel prices weighed on consumer spending, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.
Expectations had been for a much smaller increase of 0.4 per cent, after a revised drop of 0.5 per cent in January.
“Markets reacted favourably to the release, with the pound rising fairly sharply,” said Capital Economics analyst Paul Hollingsworth.
“Indeed, with consumer demand having been the key driver of the economy’s post-referendum resilience, signs that it had been fading meant that this release probably attracted more attention than usual.”
The pound jumped to a one-month peak at $1.2527 on growing hopes of an interest rate hike. Better sales of goods across the board were behind the February increase, with the exception of food sales which stagnated, ONS said. — AFP
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