The surprisingly strong retail sales data for January continues to lift sterling, presently up around 1.4350. That’s all hunky dory, but one should be a little cautious of getting too carried away regarding the sales numbers. At the end of the day aggressive price cutting during the January sales season prompted consumers to stock up with things like clothing. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the coming months, once things get back to normal and there isn’t the aggressive discounting. Might be a whole different story.