The Great Britain pound was weak on Tuesday amid risk aversion on the Forex market. Domestic macroeconomic data was not doing the sterling any favors either.
Like-for-like retail sales reported by British Retail Consortium fell 1.6% in June, year-on-year. That is compared to the drop by 1.5% predicted by economists and the decline by 3.0% registered in May. Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive at BRC, blamed the Brexit for the underwhelming data:
Overall, the picture is bleak: rising real wages have failed to translate into higher spending as ongoing Brexit uncertainty led consumers to put off non-essential purchases.
Businesses and the public desperately need clarity on Britainâs future relationship with the EU. The continued risk of a No Deal Brexit is harming consumer confidence and forcing retailers to spend hundreds of millions of pounds putting in place mitigations â this represents time and resources that would be better spent improving customer experience and prices. It is vital that the next Prime Minister can find a solution that avoids a No Deal Brexit on 31st October, just before the busy Black Friday and Christmas periods.
GBP/USD dropped from 1.2513 to 1.2461 as of 23:42 GMT today, touching the low of 1.2439 intraday. EUR/GBP climbed from 0.8959 to 0.8992, and its daily high of 0.9002 was the highest level since the big slump on January 11.
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