London: British retail sales unexpectedly slumped 1.9 percent in December from the previous month, sending the pound sliding yesterday's official data fed into fresh worries over Brexit.
"The monthly picture shows that all main retail sectors saw a decrease in the quantity bought, with the largest downwards contribution coming from non-food stores," the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.
Analysts' consensus forecast had been for a dip of 0.1 percent. "Sterling is taking a pasting after a pretty shoddy set of retail sales figures for December," noted ETX Capital senior market analyst Neil Wilson. "The pound... dived below $1.23 immediately following the ONS numbers, which showed the fastest pace of sales decline in five years.
"This is pretty alarming and was vastly wider than the 0.1 percent fall expected," he added. The sales update was offset partly by solid quarterly and year-on-year comparisons.
