Currency Note Sterling

Sterling has an okay week

By Ricky Bean April 24th, 2015

A positive week for sterling has seen it make gains against both the euro and US dollar as the Bank of England (BoE) reiterated its desire to raise interest rates at a future meeting. With little major economic news released on Monday or Tuesday, sterling traded within narrow boundaries as investors looked towards the mid-week release of minutes from the latest monetary policy meeting of the BoE. These showed no change in votes, with all policymakers electing to keep the interest rate on hold at 0.5%. However, sterling did find an unexpected boost when the minutes revealed that the BoE do not see any long lasting effects from the current low inflation, and that when interest rates change it will be a positive move.

Sterling did retreat on Thursday however, as an unexpected decline in retail sales throughout March allowed the euro and US dollar to push sterling away from its recent one-month highs against these currencies.

Today sees no major data released from the UK, with attention instead falling on both the Eurozone and US, where investors will be awaiting news updates and economic data from these areas with interest.