New York - The British pound picked up on rival currencies Thursday backed by a strong report on consumer spending in April, while other major currency pairs were steady in slow foreign exchange trade.
British retail sales gained 1.2 percent in the month, better than expected, and were up 4.7 percent from a year earlier.
That helped the pound add more than one cent on the dollar, to $1.5660.
"The fact that the UK consumer is clearly happy to increase spending in the wake of higher wage growth and lower gas prices is good news for the UK economy and welcome sign" for the Bank of England, said Boris Schlossberg of BK Asset Management.
Markets were on the watch for signals on the Greece crisis as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was to hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande in Riga late Thursday.
Hollande said the discussion aimed at "outlining solutions" for debt-ridden Greece, amid worries of a worst-case scenario of Greece defaulting on its debt and leaving the eurozone.
"It will not be here, in Riga, that we will negotiate the question of Greece, but it is true that it allows us to prepare for the upcoming deadline, particularly for the Eurogroup meeting at the end of the month or in early June," the French president told journalists.
"Along with Mr Tsipras, we want to find solutions that will give confidence and release the... funds."
2100 GMT Thursday Wednesday
EUR/USD 1.1112 1.1096
EUR/JPY 134.52 134.61
EUR/CHF 1.0409 1.0394
EUR/GBP 0.7096 0.7142
USD/JPY 121.07 121.32
USD/CHF 0.9367 0.9367
GBP/USD 1.5660 1.5535
AFP
