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2026-02-18 21:05:00
[The Pound Sterling Faces a Key Test This Week: Retail Sales and PMI Data Released on Friday] ⑴ The pound sterling will face a key data test this Friday. UK January retail sales and public sector borrowing data will be released at 15:00 Beijing time. The market expects January retail sales to grow by 0.2% month-on-month, a slowdown from December's 0.4%. ⑵ At 17:30 on the same day, the preliminary reading of the UK February Markit Purchasing Managers' Index will be released. The market expects the services PMI to be 53.5 and the manufacturing PMI to be 51.5, both in expansion territory. ⑶ Analysts point out that if retail sales data exceeds expectations, it could boost market confidence in the resilience of the UK economy, thus supporting a stronger pound; conversely, if the data falls short of expectations, the pound may come under pressure. The PMI data will provide the latest clues about private sector activity. ⑷ Data released earlier this week showed that UK overall inflation slowed to 3.0% in January, but core inflation remained higher than expected. The upcoming retail and PMI data will provide the market with more information to judge the Bank of England's next policy action.
