The Great Britain pound was soft today, though the currency has trimmed its losses against some of its rivals by now and even erased them almost completely against others, including the euro and the Japanese yen. Confusing fundamentals did not make it easy for the sterling to establish a trend as relatively positive macroeconomic data clashed with Brexit fears.
The Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managersâ Index climbed from 52.2 in March to 53.1 in April. Experts were expecting the index to stay little changed. The report said that it was the “sharpest rise in total construction output so far in 2017.” Released earlier, data from British Retail Consortium showed that the Shop Price Index fell 0.5% in April from the previous year, though the report also said that “the rate of deflation has been decelerating month-on month as retailers battle with inflationary pressures resulting from the impact of the weaker pound on input prices” and “prices are undoubtedly on an upward trajectory, which we expect to gradually play out over the course of the year.”
Meanwhile, it looks like the European Union imposes more and more stringent demands on the United Kingdom for leaving the EU. Financial Times reported that Brussels upped the Brexit bill to â¬100 billion. Brexit minister David Davis stated that the UK is not going to pay that amount:
We’ll not be paying 100 billion. What we’ve got to do is discuss in detail what the rights and obligations are.
GBP/USD traded at about 1.2910 as of 9:36 GMT today after opening at 1.2937 and falling to the daily low of 1.2884. EUR/GBP traded at 0.8453, close to the opening level of 0.8448, after the touching the day’s high of 0.8476. GBP/JPY bounced close to the opening of 144.93 after falling to 144.50 intraday.
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