The Great Britain pound was little changed today after reaching the highest level since August 2012 against the euro yesterday. The sterling was flat against the US dollar and retreated a bit versus the Japanese yen.
The UK Consumer Price Index rose 1.9 percent in June from a year ago, while analysts predicted just 1.6 percent growth. Employment data was also better-than-expected as the number of unemployment claims fell by 36,300 in June, compared to the forecast drop of 27,100, and the unemployment rate ticked down by 0.1 percentage point to 6.5 percent in May. Most other economic indicators were also good.
The positive reports reinvigorated speculations that the Bank of England should raise interest rates rather soon. Such talks hushed recently due to the stretch of unfavorable macroeconomic reports, but this week’s data returned optimism for the UK economy.
GBP/USD was little changed at 1.7140 as of 2:16 GMT today. EUR/GBP traded at 0.7895 following yesterday’s slump from 0.7913 to 0.7891. GBP/JPY fell from 174.23 to 174.01.
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