By Luke Dyson
Following on from a very positive week for Sterling, we saw significant gains across the board following month on month retail sales. With the figure printing as 1.7% over the expected 0.3% and month previous -0.6%, and also the year on year at 1% over the 0.6% expected.
Although this data looks very positive for Sterling and so we have seen markets react accordingly, when diving into it a bit deeper these recent-found gains might not last very long.
With retail sales so significantly up, this is due to a massive increase in one sector being food sales , whilst the remaining sectors are weak, with clothes sales being the worst.
This suggests that the economy is not performing as well as headlines expect, with people eating more at home and only spending money on essential items.
For the week ahead, we have a particularly quiet one data-wise.
We have GDP for the US on Thursday at 13:30, and also CPI for the US on Friday at 13:30.
Given how well the market is performing at the moment against the Euro, with markets trading just below the 4 year high and the recent gains that have been made against the dollar, it’s potentially an excellent buying opportunity if you have an up and coming currency requirement. Pleas get in touch with A Place in the Sun Currency today to take advantage of the rates or even just to get a strategy in place to be ready when you do want to exchange your currency.