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Sterling pared losses against the dollar and extended gains against the euro on Friday after British retail sales showed a surprise rise in December.
Retail sales volumes rose 0.4 per cent on the month after surging by 1.6 per cent in November, the strongest growth in more than a decade. Economists had expected a fall of 0.6 per cent on the month.
Sterling climbed to $1.4990 after the data was released from around $1.4976 beforehand, but was still down 0.2 per cent on the day. It fell to an 18-month low of $1.4958 earlier.
It rose against the beleaguered euro and was trading at 75.20 pence per euro, having hit a 7-year high of 75.055 pence as investors continued to dump the single currency after the European Central Bank announced a bigger-than-expected quantitative easing programme.
British government bond futures pared gains by as much as 15 ticks on the data, and at 0934 GMT were trading 56 ticks up on the day at 122.55.
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