India, Feb. 21 -- The British pound strengthened against other major currencies in the Asian session on Friday, as the U.K. retail sales expanded at the fastest pace in eight months in January due to the rebound in food store sales volume.
Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the U.K. retail sales volume increased 1.7 percent in January from December. The monthly growth confounded a revised fall of 0.6 percent in December.
This was the first increase in five months, the biggest growth in eight months and was also stronger than the expected increase of 0.4 percent.
On a yearly basis, retail sales growth softened to 1.0 percent in January from 2.8 percent in December. Economists had forecast sales to log a much weaker g...