The Great Britain pound sank yesterday after the Bank of England made no changes to its monetary policy and UK economic data came out mixed. While the sterling erased its losses versus the euro today, the currency retained its weakness versus the US dollar and the Japanese yen.
The BoE left its main interest rate and the size of asset purchases unchanged at yesterday’s policy meeting, in line with market expectations. As it usually happen, the central bank did not release a statement after the decision.
The Halifax House Price Index rose 0.4 percent in March, beating forecasts. Meanwhile, Britain’s trade balance deficit widened in February while economists expected a decrease.
The major detrimental factor for the pound remains the upcoming elections in May. Uncertainty regarding the voting outcome will continue to hurt the currency till the event happens.
GBP/USD traded at about 1.4718 as of 2:03 GMT today after dropping from 1.4865 to 1.4708 yesterday. GBP/JPY was at 177.44 following yesterday’s drop from 178.55 to 177.36. At the same time, EUR/GBP ticked up from 0.7243 to 0.7255.
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