The European stocks bounced back on Friday, aiming to end the week in positive territory as investors finally shrug off the impact from UK’s high inflation in May.
As of 15:10 local time in Thailand on June 24, 2022, German Dax rose 0.30%, London FTSE increased 0.66%, France CAC gained 1.09% and European STOXX600 hiked 0.78%.
European stocks were in a shaky shape these past couple of days after inflation in the UK reached a record 40-year high of 9.1% in May, fueled by rising food and energy prices that continue to worsen the country’s cost of living crisis.
This raised concerns in the market that the central banks will put on an aggressive move in hiking interest rates to slow down surging inflation.
Data released Friday showed that U.K. retail sales fell 0.5% on the month in May and decreased 4.7% from last year, as consumers found it more difficult amid soaring prices, which led to a halt in buying discretionary goods given the priority to buy essentials like food and petrol first.
U.K. consumer confidence also dropped to a record low in June as research firm GfK noted that the sentiment fell by 1 point to -41 for the month, the lowest level in the 48 years of the survey.
