U.K. retail sales unexpectedly rose for a second month in January as discounting at furniture and household-goods stores lured customers. Sales including fuel rose 0.9 percent from December, when they rose 0.6 percent, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. Economists forecast a 0.3 percent decline, according to the median of 20 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The deflator, a measure of annual price changes, dropped to the lowest in more than two years last month. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said this week that the economy should “gradually” recover this year as cooling inflation ... (full story)