• Retail Sales in the UK declined at a stronger pace than expected in December.
• GBP/USD continues to move sideways below 1.3600 after the data.

Retail Sales in the UK declined by 3.7% on a monthly basis in December following November's increase of 1% (revised from +1.4%), the UK's Office for National Statistics reported on Friday. This reading missed the market expectation for a decline of 0.6% by a wide margin. On a yearly basis, Retail Sales were down 0.9% in 2021, compared to analysts' estimate of +3.4%.

Further details of the publication showed that Retail Sales ex-Fuel was down 3.6% in December.

Market reaction

The market reaction to these figures was largely muted. The GBP/USD pair was last seen posting small daily losses at 1.3588.