020 7898 0500Economic data from the UK has been pretty thin on the ground this week but the shortfall has been more than made up for by the abundance of political information. Prime Minister’s Questions took place earlier in the week, as Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn locked horns for the final time before the general election.
Meanwhile, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested that some British people have ‘illusions’ about discussing the UK’s future ties with the EU, while nailing down the terms of Brexit. She went on to say that an EU-UK deal can only be discussed once the exit issues have been resolved.
Yesterday, we saw sterling continue to hold its strong position as the CBI reported sales were very strong, at a multi-month high, supported by good weather conditions. In terms of consumer spending, this is seen as a secondary report compared to the retail sales which were released last week.
Today brings the big economic release of the week. The focus will be on the first release of the UK’s Q1 GDP number. It was initially expected to show that the UK grew by 0.4% but with last Friday’s poor retail sales, this figure could be in jeopardy.
Sterling had been on a positive run after May called the snap election. However, with inflation rising and retail sales showing a prolonged decline, there will be some concern that a mild form of stagflation could emerge.
