020 7898 0500Sterling struggled on Friday following the news that industrial production and manufacturing production in the UK had stalled when growth of 0.4% was anticipated. Despite this negativity, sterling did break the 1.65 level against the US dollar for the first time since the beginning of the month following worse than anticipated labour data in the US. This week’s key December data releases will be the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data on Tuesday and the retail sales figures on Friday. The CPI inflation data release is expected to show a 2.1% rise – the same percentage change as in December and only just above the Bank of England’s 2% target. Retail sales data released on Friday is expected to show an increase of 0.5%. Both data releases will be very closely watched as they are viewed as key indicators as to when interest rates could start to be increased, so please call your trader now for a live update on the market.
