The pound is headed for its best weekly performance in five months against a dollar down across the board, although data on Friday showing British retail sales barely budged in January took some of the shine off sterling.

The British currency was flat at $1.4096 after trading above $1.41 before the retail sales data was released. The pound had risen to a daily high of $1.4145 in Asian trading.

Against the euro, the pound traded down 0.2% at 88.85 pence per euro.

A falling dollar and growing expectations that the Bank of England will tighten monetary policy faster this year have lifted sterling, and the British currency is up 1.9% since Monday.

But concerns about UK economic weakness were underlined by data showing retail sales volumes rose 0.1% on the month, less than the 0.5% monthly rise that economists had forecast in a Reuters poll, after dropping 1.4% in December.

Traders are looking to earnings data next week, which if better than expected could feed into bets that the BoE will tighten monetary policy faster. Investors are also watching for progress on Britain agreeing a transition plan with the European Union for when it leaves the trading bloc.

Last week, the central bank said rates needed to rise a bit more and sooner than it had previously thought. The market is pricing in a roughly 70% chance of a first rate increase for May.

Sterling is up more than 4% against the dollar this year and in January, trading at $1.4346, it hit its strongest level since the vote to leave the European Union in June 2016. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie