Currency Note Sterling

Will sterling build on last week’s surprise election result?

By Ricky Bean May 11th, 2015

After gaining significant ground at the end of last week following the surprise election of a Conservative government, it will be interesting to see if sterling can continue to strengthen in a busy week for UK data releases.

The week starts with the Bank of England (BoE)’s interest rate decision today- this will almost certainly remain unchanged at 0.5% as inflation is minimal and wage growth under 2%. This will be followed by Tuesday’s industrial production and manufacturing data for March, both of which are expected to show gains, albeit at a marginally slower pace than in the previous month. The week’s main focus will be Wednesday’s quarterly inflation report and the accompanying speech by BoE Governor Mark Carney plus on the same day there will be a raft of data covering the UK labour market