The pound fell after a key survey this morning showed an unexpected drop in high street sales during October. In its monthly distributive trades survey, the Confederation of British Industry said 38 pct of retailers said their sales in October were up on a year ago, while 42 pct say they were lower, giving a net balance of -4 pct. This is the first negative balance since March's -16 pct and comes well below analysts' expectations for a much more modest decline to +12 pct from September's +14 pct. At 11.15 am GMT, the pound was trading at 1.8968 against the dollar, down from 1.8982 before the data were released, while the euro rose to 0.6691 stg from 0.6685 previously. "The survey evidence appears more bullish than the official results, which slumped recently, and hence a correction is due and the index is now converging with the weakness in the official data," said Zaki Kada at Thomson IFR Markets.