The Great Britain pound fell today (though the drop was limited) after the Bank of England left its monetary policy unchanged but signaled that additional stimulus remains a possibility.
The BoE left its policy without change, with the Bank Rate at 0.25% and the asset-purchase program at £435 billion. The bank signaled in its statement that an additional interest rate cut is possible in the future:
The Committee will assess that news, along with other forthcoming indicators, during its November forecast round. If, in light of that full updated assessment, the outlook at that time is judged to be broadly consistent with the August Inflation Report projections, a majority of members expect to support a further cut in Bank Rate to its effective lower bound at one of the MPCâs forthcoming meetings during the course of this year.
In other news, retail sales fell 0.2% in August from July, though the drop was smaller than 0.4% predicted by analysts. Yesterday, an employment report for July was released. It showed an increase of average weekly earnings by 2.3% (better than forecasts), a rise of jobless claims by 2,400 (worse than forecasts), and a stable unemployment rate of 4.9% (in line with forecasts).
GBP/USD ticked down from 1.3234 to 1.3208 as of 16:32 GMT today. GBP/JPY slipped from 135.50 to 135.05. EUR/GBP edged higher from 0.8496 to 0.8511.
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