UK retail sales increased by 1% month-on-month in June, crushing its expectation of 0.3% decline. The strong figures mainly coming from a robust demand in sporting merchandise, clothing, outdoor products, fan and air conditioning equipment. UK retail sales have now rose by 4.2% annually, surpassing market expectations of 2.3%. Even if we did see strong retail sales this morning, GBP have not made any large movement to other currency pairs. This week we can see that GBP has taken losses against the EUR and USD, signalling that domestic macroeconomics for the UK currently are overlooked.
Geopolitical tensions are once again taking centre stage in the Middle East, brent crude oil reaching $100 a barrel for the first time yesterday since back in May and gained more than 30% in price since the start of the month. Leading to fears of spiking oil and energy prices to again effect and elevate inflation levels worldwide.
Donald Trump has reengaged his stance on US tariffs on trading partners, with a minimum 10% on imports from around 60 trading partners and come into effect today, when the current levies from back in February are about to expire.
GBP/EUR 1.1694 GBP/USD 1.3319 GBP/AED 4.8943
GBP/AUD 1.9067 GBP/CHF 1.0870 GBP/CAD 1.8754
GBP/NZD 2.3026 EUR/USD 1.1377 GBP/ZAR 22.4659