GBP: Could economic data shift the direction of sterling next week?

Sterling has remained range bound in a fairly quiet week in terms of economic data. Housing data shows that prices are under pressure and fell by 0.9%, sparking fear that the housing market may be cooling in 2017. The Halifax did, however, go on to say that a shortage of houses for sale should prevent a steep slump in prices. The Bank of England (BoE) released a report that 80% of publicly listed companies in Britain believe that there is pressure to deliver short-term returns to shareholders due to the obstacle of Brexit. BoE Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe stated that investment was likely to remain weak in the short term. This could pick up once the path of Brexit becomes clearer.

Meanwhile, it was a historic week in British politics as Parliament voted in favour of the bill to trigger Article 50. The bill is now passed to the House of Lords to approve.

The day ahead has the main economic data release of the week in the form of the UK manufacturing data. It is expected that the pace of production will drop from the previous month. Next week is a much busier week in terms of economic data with the inflation, unemployment data and retails sales all being released.