Money Minute Monday 13 January: a busy week for UK data
Today's Money Minute looks forward to a busy week in the UK, with the latest figures for both inflation and retail sales.
It’s a busy week for UK data. On Wednesday we have the latest inflation data, for December. UK inflation has been fairly tame lately, coming in below the Bank of England’s target of 2%. With sterling strengthening somewhat in the wake of the election, that’s likely to continue for the next few months at least.
On Friday meanwhile, we get retail sales figures for December. High street retailers have been complaining of a terrible Christmas. However, that’s not because consumers aren’t spending – it’s because they are increasingly going online to buy goods. The latest official figures will give a better view of the reality than the headline-grabbing doom-mongering from trade bodies and lobbying groups.
Elsewhere, we get the official figure for China’s GDP growth for the fourth quarter of last year, which is expected to come in at around 6%, as it normally does.
And in the eurozone, we get the latest snapshot of German banking and business confidence.