Sterling rises as BoE's meeting minutes and employment spark some optimism on UK's economy

[RTFX-Trading]

The British Pound continued its advance after breaking above 1.5200 on Friday to reach a fresh weekly high of 1.5382 earlier today, and GBP/USD may continue to retrace the decline from the previous month as the economic outlook for the UK is looking less bleak.

The Bank of England released the minutes from its Monetary Policy meeting earlier this month. The minutes showed the governing board voted unanimously to keep interest rates at 0.50% and asset purchases target at £200B. The minutes also evidenced how “some members considered that the upside risks to inflation had increased slightly over the month.”

Meanwhile, jobless claims slipped in February at -32’300, while the claimant count rate unexpectedly fell to 4.9%.

The positive job numbers and the BoE’s apparent shift form an outright dovish stance to a wait-and-see approach has contributed to the Sterling’s rise today. The Sterling is currently up 0.21% against the greenback at 1.5283 after reaching 1.5382 shortly after the BoE’s minutes. Against the Euro, the Pound is up 0.48% to 1.1128, and it is up by 0.26% and 0.46% to 1.6127 and 138.29 against the Swiss franc and Japanese Yen respectively.

However, our view is still bearish for the Sterling in the medium term as daily studies seem to have already corrected nicely from oversold levels, and the market still looks locked in an intense downtrend.



Emman Xuereb
Trading Desk
RTFX Ltd
Risk Disclaimer