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Forex - Pound sinks as Oct retail sales show flagging sentiment Thomson
Financial The pound fell sharply after retail sales data for October pointed to weakening consumer sentiment, which will add to expectations the Bank of England will have to cut interest rates sooner rather than later. Official data showed retail sales fell 0.1 pct in October from September, the first drop in sales since January, bringing the annual rate of growth down to 4.4 pct from 6.0 pct. The monthly drop was narrower than expected, but this was balanced out by September's initially reported 0.6 pct growth being revised down to a 0.3 pct gain.
At 0938 am GMT the pound was at around 0.7147 to the euro, just off a new four-and-a-half year low of 0.7152 struck immediately after the data were released. Prior to that it was trading around 0.7127. Sterling also fell sharply against the dollar, dropping through the 2.05 usd barrier to trade around 2.0495, from 2.0530 just before the data.
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