The Great Britain pound dropped against the US dollar today as consumer confidence deteriorated this month and retail sales were unchanged last month. The currency gained versus the euro.
UK retail sales were unchanged in November, while market participants were hoping for an increase by 0.3 percent. The reading was still better than in October (drop by 0.7 percent).
GfK consumer confidence index dropped from -22 in November to -29 in December, more than analysts have predicted. Nick Moon, Managing Director of Social Research at GfK, commented:
While such a dramatic drop in consumer confidence over the last month might seem like very bad news, it must be seen in the context of a massive eight point rise in November â the seventh highest increase since the Index began in 1974. On its own, this increase suggested a real turning point in consumer confidence as we looked ahead to 2013. But just as with significant improvements like this in the past â in May 2011 for example â the surge disappeared as fast as it arrived.
GBP/USD declined from 1.6276 to 1.6254 and GBP/JPY dropped from 137.25 to 136.97 as of 1:45 GMT today. At the same time, EUR/GBP went down from 0.8134 to 0.8121.
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