The rate was expected to consolidate by retracing back up or trading sideways before resuming its decline.
UK Retail Sales
The British Pound depreciated against the US Dollar, following the UK Retail Sales data release on Friday at 09:30 GMT. The GBP/USD exchange currency rate lost 36 pips or 0.28% right after the release. The British Pound continued trading at the 1.3050 level against the Greenback.
The Office for National Statistics released the UK Retail Sales data, which came out worse-than-expected of negative 0.6% compared with the forecast of 0.5%.
According to the official release: "All sectors except household goods stores and fuel saw a decline in the quantity bought for the three-month on three-month movement; driven mainly by non-food stores at negative 1.0%. The quantity bought in December 2019 fell by 0.6% when compared with the previous month; the fifth consecutive month of no growth."
Economic Calendar
GBP/USD short-term review
The GBP/USD has passed the support of the 55, 100 and 200-hour simple moving averages. By the middle of Monday's trading session, the rate was headed to the support of a weekly and monthly pivot points just below the 1.2940 mark.Hourly Chart