UK pound is moving higher today, surging ahead of its major counterparts on the latest unemployment report. As the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in five years, there are expectations that the Bank of England will consider cutting back on its asset purchase program.
Sterling is surging ahead of its major currency counterparts today, gaining ground as the UK unemployment rate falls to 7.1 per cent. Economists had expected that number to be 7.3 per cent, so the UK economic recovery appears to be moving forward in leaps and bounds.
Now that the unemployment rate is dropping, there are expectations that the Bank of England will do something about its accommodative monetary policy. In the past, comments have been made to the effect that rates will rise when unemployment reaches 7 per cent. However, the latest BOE Monetary Policy Committee minutes indicate that isn’t a sure thing. At the very least, though, some think that the asset purchase program will be scaled back, even as the BOE changes the unemployment threshold for a rate hike to 6.5 per cent.
At 14:07 GMT GBP/USD is moving ahead to 1.6570, up from the open at 1.6473. EUR/GBP is down to 0.8187 from the open at 0.8232. GBP/JPY is surging up to 173.0575 from the open at 171.9275.
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