The pound eased back after earlier hitting 14-year highs against the dollar after two UK surveys on retail sales and consumer confidence came in below expectations.
The Confederation of British Industry's key distributive trades survey showed that 25 pct of retailers reported their sales in November were up on a year ago, while 34 pct said they were lower.
The ensuing balance of -9 pct was below expectations for a pick-up to +3 and marks the weakest reading since March's -16 pct. Meanwhile, GfK NOP reported that its latest consumer confidence barometer fell to -7 in November from -5 in October, against analysts' predictions for an unchanged reading.
At 11.20 am, the pound was trading at 1.9557 against the dollar, having earlier reached a peak of 1.9580 usd, its highest level since 1992. The euro meanwhile, edged up to 0.6751 stg from 0.6745 before the data were released.
"A little of the wind has been taken out of sterling's sails by the unexpected deterioration in November's GfK UK consumer confidence gauge, and November's CBI retail sales balance plunge to an eight-month low," said Robert Howard at Thomson IFR Markets.