On Friday, the British pound surged following a release of data which showed that consumer spending in the UK was stronger than had been expected in June. This data came despite the nation’s high inflation as wage growth rose, which supported an assumption among traders that the Bank of England would be enacting more rate hikes as the year goes on.

In June, retail sales were up by 0.7% over May, which beat the official forecasts which predicted a rise of 0.2%. Year over year, they dropped 1.0% compared with expectations for a drop of 1.5%, according to the official data.

The pound was up by as much as 0.28%, to a high for the session of $1.2904 after the data. It was last up 0.2%.

The pound was still on course for its largest weekly loss vs the dollar since January, following separate data earlier in the week which showed that inflation in England was cooling far faster than had been forecast last month. The data had traders scaling back their expectations for a rise in UK rates to as much as 6%.