Retail Sales down 0.1

Some cheer this morning for the UK economy – retail sales ‘only’ dropped by 0.1% in October. This was against analysts forecasts of a 0.8% drop, so was much better than expected.

Despite this, the Pound has not shown much of a recovery in terms of the Euro exchange rate or US Dollar exchange rates this morning. Why? Some scaremongering in the press, perhaps – the BBC reported “Retail sales shrink” as their headline, even though the figure is much better than expected. Retail sales are still up on a year ago!

In other words, even good news is bad news at the moment, and the beleagured Pound does not seem to be able to gain any strength. The only gain of note has been the AUD (great news if you are transferring money to Australia) – but that was overnight and before the figures were released this morning.

To make sure you get a good deal on your currency, whatever the market is doing, use a specialist foreign currency broker to help you through the process..