UK data - BRC Like-For-Like Retail Sales 0.6% y/y (expected 0.5%)

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British Retail Consortium data

The "like-for-like" sales basis strips out changes in store size

Comes in at 0.6% y/y for January

• expected 0.4% m/m, prior -0.5% m/m

Doesn't tend to be an immediate FX market mover

BRC Chief Executive Helen Dickinson on today's data, commenting on shoppers spending more on more on food, but cutting back on discretionary purchases:

• "he fact is that consumers want to spend, they just don't have the resources to do so. With the upward pressure on prices from the fall in the pound now starting to subside we expect to see some loosening of the squeeze on spending on non-essentials, but it's likely to come slowly"

GBP a few tics lower ... barely moving