020 7898 0500Sterling struggled somewhat on Friday, after the monthly manufacturing production data became the first piece of data out of the UK last week to come in worse than expected. This caused sterling to weaken, however, following poor labour data out of the US, sterling reached fresh highs against the euro by breaking the 1.19 mark for the first time since January. This week starts off slowly, with no data of any significance due out today or tomorrow bar a survey on the current credit conditions in the country. Wednesday could bring some volatility as we see several key pieces of data released form the labour market in the form of Claimant Count Change and the overall rate of unemployment. These releases will be watched keenly due to the Bank of England’s (BoE)` ‘forward guidance’ mandate to keep interest rates at an all time low until the labour market recovers. On Thursday we will see the release of the Inflation Report Hearings, also key as high inflation will increase pressure on the BoE to raise interest rates sooner than thought. This is all the data that this week holds, possibly leading to a quieter week for the sterling. Call in now to see if this is correct.
