British pound rises on strong retail data

The British pound rose against the US dollar on Friday, after the release of upbeat economic data in the UK.

The UK's retail sales index rose by 2.1% in February, while analysts forecast a rise by 2.2%.

Most countries are trying to ramp up the Covid-19 vaccination to finally contain the pandemic, as the US President Joe Biden's administration announced raising the target of distributing vaccines to 200 million shots by the end of April.

The UK has also increased distributing vaccines to citizens, especially after several countries in Europe were forced to re-impose lockdown restrictions.

As of 19:22 GMT, GBP/USD rose 0.4% to 1.3783, after hitting a high of 1.3812 and a low of 1.3730.