UK March Retail Sales including autos, fuel: -1.2% m/m - big miss

  • expected -0.6, prior +0.8%
  • For the y/y, comes in at 1.1% vs. expected 1.9% & prior 1.5%

UK March Retail Sales excluding autos, fuel: -0.5% m/m

  • expected -0.4%, prior +0.4% (revised from +0.6%)
  • For the y/y, comes in at 1.1% vs. expected 1.4% & prior 1.1%

Retail sales biggest quarterly fall in a year during the three months to March

  • weather impacts cited - unusually cold and snowy
  • For the Q1 as a whole, sales volumes -0.5% q/q, biggest quarterly fall since the first quarter of 2017

GBP has come off, cable was straddling 1.42 and its circa 1.4170 as I update

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