UK retail sales drop 0.9% m/m in December, miss estimates

• The UK retail sales dropped by -0.9% m/m in Dec.
• The core retail sales in the UK dropped by -1.3% m/m in Dec.

The UK retail sales contracted 0.9% over the month in December, missing market expectations by a small margin while core retail sales stripping the auto motor fuel sales also dropped 1.3% m/m.

On an annualized basis, the UK retail sales fell 3.0% in December versus 3.6% expected while the core retail sales also declined 2.6% in the reported month versus 3.5% previous and 3.9% expectations.