GBP/SGD slips from 2-month high on surprise UK retail sales drop

The GBP/SGD currency pair extended a pullback from recent 2-month high on Friday, after data showed UK retail sales had unexpectedly shrunk in October.

Retail sales in the country decreased 0.3% month-over-month, compared with market expectations of a 0.3% growth, following a revised up 1.1% drop in September.

Sales at food stores edged down 0.3% month-over-month, while sales of auto fuel plummeted 2%.

Sales at non-food stores went down 0.2% in October, in part because of the rising cost of living, reduced footfall and unfavorable weather.

Meanwhile, retail sales, which exclude fuel sales, decreased 0.1% month-over-month in October, compared with market expectations of a 0.4% growth.

In annual terms, UK retail sales shrank 2.7% in October, which marked the 19th straight month of decline.

In other macro data, Singapore registered a trade surplus of SGD 6.524 billion in October, or the largest figure since February.

Exports of non-oil domestic goods went up 3.4% in October from a month earlier, which marked the second consecutive monthly increase.

As of 8:43 GMT on Friday GBP/SGD was edging down 0.19% on the day to trade at 1.6683. Earlier in the week, the exotic Forex pair went up as high as 1.6882. The latter has been the pair’s strongest level since September 20th (1.6920).