The Great Britain pound was little changed today. The currency is likely to retain its downside bias after the central bank’s chief shocked the market, suggesting that monetary tightening is not going to happen soon, and UK economic data was not supportive for the sterling.
Confederation of British Industry reported:
High street sales growth slowed markedly in the year to June, although the pace is expected to pick up next month.
The realized sales index sharply dropped from 16 to 4 instead of rising to 29 as was expected.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney shocked the market earlier this week, changing the tone of his comments and saying that slow wage growth may prevent the central bank from raising interest rates soon. The CBI report echoed concerns about wage growth, saying:
Whilst discretionary income is still on the rise, slow wage growth continues to weigh on how much consumers are willing to go out and spend.
GBP/USD rose a bit from 1.6983 to 1.6989 as of 2:53 GMT today. GBP/JPY dropped from 172.99 to 172.85. EUR/GBP traded at 0.8024 following yesterday’s rise from 0.8010 to 0.8024.
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