(Finance) – The retail sales in the United Kingdom, contrary to what analysts expected.
In May, according to theOffice for National Statistics, retail sales increased by 0.3% on a monthly basis, after the +0.5% recorded in April. The figure is better than the consensus which indicated a drop of 0.2%.
On an annual basis, a negative variation of 2.1% was recorded, better than expected (-2.6%), after the -3.4% in April (revised by -3%).
The core retail sales, which exclude fuels, rose by 0.1% month on month after +0.7% the previous month (data revised by +0.3%), against -0.3% expected by the market. Over the year, the core data recorded a +1.7% compared to the previous -3% (data revised from -2.6%) and the expected -2.1%.