The British pound is struggling to find momentum to close out the trading week following disappointing retail sales data. The pound has been trading relatively flat against its biggest currency rival, the US dollar, throughout much of 2021. Now that the greenback has touched its best level in nine months, will the pound endure a beatdown heading into the fall and winter?

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), retail sales tumbled by 2.5% in July, the worst reading since January. It also fell short of the median estimate of a 0.4% gain. On an annualized basis, retail trade rose 2.4%, missing the market forecast of 6%.

Much of the disappointing retail sales data was driven by sliding food store trade (-1.5), non-food store sales (-4.4%), and automotive fuel sales (-2.9%). Electronics, apparel, and household goods stores also reported a drop in sales. The only area of the marketplace to record a gain was ecommerce, surging 27.9%.

This comes one day after the consumer confidence index worsened to -8 in August, which falls short of the consensus estimate of -7.

On Monday, the manufacturing, services, and composite purchasing manager’ index (PMI) readings will be released. They are all expected to be lower from the July numbers.

Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that economic growth in the United Kingdom would be 7% in 2021, but it warned about long-term prospects. At the same time, EY Item Club predicted that the British economy would expand at its fastest pace in 80 years and potentially recovery to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year.

The British government bonds market was mixed to end the trading week, with the benchmark 10-year bond up 0.001% to 0.525%. The one-year bill dipped 0.001% to 0.07%, while the 30-year bond was unchanged at 0.941%.

The GBP/USD currency pair fell 0.12% to 1.3625, from an opening of 1.3638, at 16:43 GMT on Friday. The GBP/JPY fell 0.07% to 149.59, from an opening of 149.70.