Europe Ahead: UK retail sales probably declined during the holiday season

The British economy witnessed a huge increase in prices during the
month of December, which spread doubts among economists about the
severity of the challenges that lies ahead in the path of economic
recovery in Great Britain.

The British economy will present its retail sales report for December,
where despite the rise in the same report during November, sales of
retailers probably dropped in December as prices surged while
investors narrowed their spending ahead of the VAT increase that was
implemented in January and protecting themselves for worse conditions
in regards of the estimated quarter of a million job loss that will
result from the government's budget cut plan.

Sales excluding auto fuel probably dropped in December by 0.3% after
rising a month earlier by the same amount, meanwhile on a year-to-year
basis, the index is projected to rise by 1.3 percent from 1.8 percent.
Moreover, sales including auto fuels probably dropped by 0.2%
according to market's estimates. This is compared with a month
earlier rise of 0.3%, while on the yearly basis, the index is forecast
to show a 1.1 percent increase in sales.

Other news will emerge from Germany, where the IFO institute will
present the business climate indicator for January, with expectations
that the index remained unchanged from a month earlier at 109.9.
In addition, the currency assessment report probably edged higher to
113.2 from 112.9 in the same reported month, while the expectations
index, probably dipped lower to 106.5 from 106.9.

Calm trading will persist as yesterday, where lack of fundamentals
from the U.S. will allow investors to control market's trend based
on their desires.

Source: Fxstreet.com