The pound approached the highest level in four weeks versus the dollar before an industry report that economists said will show U.K. retail sales increased this month. Sterling was about 0.2 percent from a six-week high against the euro. A gauge of annual sales growth climbed to 13 from 8 in February, the Confederation of British Industry will say today, according to the median estimate of 10 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey. The Debt Management Office is scheduled to sell 1 billion pounds ($1.52 billion) of gilts maturing in 2025. The pound gained 0.1 percent to $1.5185 at 7:52 a.m. London time. It rose to $1.5269 yesterday, the most since Feb. 22. Sterling was little changed at 84.72 pence per euro, after appreciating to 84.58 pence yesterday, the strongest level since Feb. 11. The pound gained 0.9 percent in the past month, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes that track 10 developed-nation currencies. The euro weakened 1.2 percent and the dollar climbed 0.5 percent. U.K. gilts returned 1.6 percent this month through yesterday, according to indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies. German bunds earned 0.7 percent, while Treasuries fell 0.2 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Lukanyo Mnyanda in Edinburgh at lmnyanda@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Dobson at pdobson2@bloomberg.net

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