The Great Britain pound rose today (though the gains were very limited) following the rather optimistic speech from Michael Saunders, Bank of England policy maker.
Saunders was rather optimistic, predicting low unemployment in 2017:
Rather than the rise in unemployment forecast in the November Inflation Report, it seems quite possible to me that the jobless rate will stay below 5% this year. In considering the appropriate policy, I will be taking account of all of this, rather than just one part.
At the same time, he did not expect excessive wage growth, thus it “seems unlikely to pose major upside risks to the inflation target.” Still, the currency’s weakness may “lift inflation above target this year.” As for economic growth, Saunders said that it “recently has been stronger than expected.”
All those factors suggest that the Bank of England is highly unlikely to loosen its policy more, and that is positive for the sterling. Yet the currency rose very little, heading for a weekly loss, as fears of the hard Brexit continued to plague markets.
GBP/USD rose from 1.2158 to 1.2187 as of 19:12 GMT today. GBP/JPY traded at 139.55 after opening at 139.41 and rising to the daily high of 140.55. GBP/CHF was at about 1.2298, near the open of 1.2288.
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