020 7898 0500A positive day on Friday saw public sector net borrowing and retail sales figures in the UK come in better than expected. Public sector borrowing was £1bn less than expected, coming in at £13.4bn, whilst last month’s figure also got revised down. The realised sales index came in much better than anticipated, showing the fastest growth for retail sales in December for nearly 26 years – largely due to the “Black Friday” sales.
We are in for a very quiet week for sterling data in the lead up to Christmas. With Thursday and Friday being Bank Holidays in the UK, the only data due to be released is the final growth, mortgage approvals and current account figures on Tuesday. The final growth figure tends to remain the same as the preliminary growth figure released earlier in the month, but if this figure is significantly different you can expect to see sterling react quite aggressively.
