020 7898 0500With the bank holiday on Monday, British markets played catch up a little when they re-opened on Tuesday and saw sterling fall ahead of Mark Carney’s first public speech since becoming governor of the bank of England. As expected, the new governor pledged to keep interest rates at record lows until the central bank saw significant improvements to the UK’s economy. Furthermore, the governor promised that even if unemployment fell below the 7% threshold, this was not an automatic trigger to raise interests rates and he went as far as suggesting the possibility of increased quantitative easing if the central bank deemed it necessary. However, investors were not convinced with his words and as such the pound made back its earlier losses – helped in part by the governor’s plans to relax liquidity buffers for the banks which would help increase current lending levels. Sterling continued to perform relatively well yesterday on the back of optimistic views of the country’s growing economic strength. Lending data released today may cause some volatility in the market, however any significant developments in Syria will likely cause a much greater reaction in the global markets as a whole. Call your trader now for the latest price on the pound, as investors continue their reaction to these events.
