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Friday preview: UK retail sales unlikely to liven quiet day
Friday is scheduled to be a quiet day for company reporting, though shopkeepers that have not yet given their festive updates could be buffeted by official retail sales data.
The Office for National Statistics will put out the release on retail sales volumes at 0930 GMT.
The consensus for the official number is for a 0.9% month-to-month decline after November's 1.1% jump. This is expected result in a 3.0% year-on-year rise, following the 1.5% gain a month earlier.
Earlier this month, figures from the British Retail Consortium showed sales increased 0.6% in December, the same as the month before, as price inflation drove a 2.6% rise in food sales that was all but wiped out by a 2.2% fall in non-food retail sales.
Pantheon Macroeconomics was looking for a 0.8% fall. "The official data are struggling to adjust fully for the new seasonal pattern in sales caused by Black Friday," economists said, noting that surveys from the BRC, BDO, CBI and Visa also have been very weak.
Friday January 19
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Producer Price Index (GER) (07:00)
UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Retail Sales (09:30)
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