| Time | Country | Event | Period | Previous value | Forecast | Actual |
|---|
| 06:00 | United Kingdom | Retail Sales (MoM) | May | 0.4% | -0.7% | -0.5% |
| 06:00 | United Kingdom | Retail Sales (YoY) | May | -5.7% | -4.5% | -4.7% |
| 08:00 | Germany | IFO - Current Assessment | June | 99.6 | 99.1 | 99.3 |
| 08:00 | Germany | IFO - Expectations | June | 86.9 | 87.4 | 85.8 |
| 08:00 | Germany | IFO - Business Climate | June | 93 | 92.9 | 92.3 |
| 11:00 | United Kingdom | BOE Quarterly Bulletin | | | | |
GBP advanced against most of its counterparts in the European session on Friday as the UK's retail sales data for May topped economists’ expectations.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that retail sales in Britain fell by 0.5% m/m in May, while economists had forecast a 0.7% m/m decline. However, the April reading saw a significant downward revision to a gain of 0.4% m/m from 1.4% m/m reported previously.
The data came after Thursday's release of the UK flash PMIs for June, which showed that a composite indicator, which tracks business trends across both the manufacturing and service sectors, was better than anticipated, remaining unchanged m/m at 53.1 compared to economists’ forecast of 52.6.